Tomorrow is the day! We have been planning this event for a couple of months now (I say "we", I actually did very little!). We are anticipating a pretty big turnout!
August 2nd would have been my friend Rita's son's first birthday, but sadly, he is not here to celebrate it with us. On January 14th, he passed at the age of 5 months from Spinal Muscular Atrophy, Type 1. In honor/memory of sweet Baby Eli, we are doing a 5K Walk/Run Event. Click here to learn more. If you will be unable to join us, but would still like to make a donation to help fund research to find a cure for the #1 genetic killer of infants, please mail them to:
Through Eli's Eyes
18131 Pagemill Point Ln
Humble, TX 77346
If you would like to visit Rita's blog, click here or look on my sidebar and click on "Rita's Blog".
I have a lot on my heart right now about the 5K Event, and about Rita, but I don't know how to put it into words. Rita and I have become pretty close over the past 10 months that I have known her. She has become like family to me, whether she realizes that or not. Please keep Rita and her husband Jason in your thoughts over the next couple of days, this is a rough time for both of them.
Sorry I have not posted as much the past couple of weeks, I have been super busy with work and with Raia. I promise to post more often from now on!
Thank you for checking in!
Glad Game:
1.) I am so glad I have Rita in my life. She may think that I am the one holding her up when she is having a rough day, but she is the one holding me up. Love you!
2.) I am glad that school is about to start back up, this summer has been crazy with kids in the store!! Ahhhh!!!
3.) I am glad my headaches have been fewer the past few weeks.
4.) I am glad for past life experiences. I have learned a lot from my many mistakes. Too bad I was almost 30 before realizing a lot of them.
5.) I am glad that we were able to get the 5K Event planned and that so many people are coming.
xoxox~
Friday, July 31, 2009
Thursday, July 23, 2009
Our Haunted Hotel - St. Anthony
Our haunted hotel has proven to be uneventful thus far. Aside from the scary elevator that just stood open all day on the sixth floor (our floor) with no lights on inside, a blinky exit sign, and banging noises in the pipes, nothing has happened. It is so easy to let your imagination go wild in a place like this though, and I have a few times! Last night, sitting here on the computer in the dark I got a pretty good scare. I heard a loud train whistle, and it was nearly midnight. We have been here since Monday, and have YET to hear a train go by, until last night. So that was kinda freaky.
We spoke to the guy at the front desk a few nights ago about how haunted the hotel really is, and apparently, it is frequented by a honeymoon couple around September/November. They dance on the stage at the rooftop ballroom/theater. The front desk man said its usually the smokers that are out smoking late at night that see the couple dancing. We have been up there a few times, have taken a few pictures on the stage, and nothing...guess we will need to come back in September. There is also an employee that haunts the hotel, but Frank, the front desk guy, said she only haunts the employee areas. He said he feels watched in his locker room, and has even been tapped on the shoulder once when no one was around. F.R.E.A.K.Y.
Oh! We are staying on the sixth floor, which I mentioned before. Our room is 663. Can you guess what room should be across the hall?? Yeah, room 666 is missing in action. I doubt they would have many people willing to stay in it anyway.
Tonight is our last night here, and we have had a really good time. We go down to the River Walk each night for dinner, and then come back to the hotel and just kind of explore, or watch cable TV. I tell Nathan he will need to get cable TV for me in the near future, or I am staying here LOL. I have become addicted to Deadliest Catch on the Discovery Channel, and various other shows that we don't get at home, too. I love all the true crime shows with Bill Curtis (I've secretly had a crush on the man for years...), and all the shows on Discovery Channel.
Anyway, I've gotten off topic. I wanted to post some of the pictures we have gotten.
This is the hotel we stayed in the first night we were here, right behind The Alamo.
A beautiful staircase in The St. Anthony Hotel.
A picture from the lobby.
A huge fireplace in the lobby.
My breakfast from room service - Vanilla Bean Pancakes with Pralines and a sliced banana. It was really good!
A picture of our room, but it is huge, so this was all I could get in one picture. It has 2 bathrooms!
Here is the TV and desk, the bathrooms are on either side.
All the doorknobs are glass, they remind me of crystal balls.
I thought the mail chute was neat. It goes all the way to the top floor. You can just drop your mail in and it goes all the way to the bottom floor. I haven't seen any mail being dropped yet, but I think that would be neat, too. I am easily amused I guess :)
Daddy & Raia on the haunted stage...We will have more pictures of this later, but the camera has died.
A beautiful stained glass cross at the Methodist Church across the street. I think it is called Travis Street Methodist Church.
And here is the steeple. Again, we have better pics, but the camera is dead. I will post the better ones later.
Here is one cute little girl and her new ducky (the night before we took it to the pool).
I will have more pictures of the little cutie pie as soon as the camera is charged up again, but here is a short video of her in her swimsuit just before going to the pool with her ducky - which she wanted nothing to do with once we got there!
We spoke to the guy at the front desk a few nights ago about how haunted the hotel really is, and apparently, it is frequented by a honeymoon couple around September/November. They dance on the stage at the rooftop ballroom/theater. The front desk man said its usually the smokers that are out smoking late at night that see the couple dancing. We have been up there a few times, have taken a few pictures on the stage, and nothing...guess we will need to come back in September. There is also an employee that haunts the hotel, but Frank, the front desk guy, said she only haunts the employee areas. He said he feels watched in his locker room, and has even been tapped on the shoulder once when no one was around. F.R.E.A.K.Y.
Oh! We are staying on the sixth floor, which I mentioned before. Our room is 663. Can you guess what room should be across the hall?? Yeah, room 666 is missing in action. I doubt they would have many people willing to stay in it anyway.
Tonight is our last night here, and we have had a really good time. We go down to the River Walk each night for dinner, and then come back to the hotel and just kind of explore, or watch cable TV. I tell Nathan he will need to get cable TV for me in the near future, or I am staying here LOL. I have become addicted to Deadliest Catch on the Discovery Channel, and various other shows that we don't get at home, too. I love all the true crime shows with Bill Curtis (I've secretly had a crush on the man for years...), and all the shows on Discovery Channel.
Anyway, I've gotten off topic. I wanted to post some of the pictures we have gotten.
This is the hotel we stayed in the first night we were here, right behind The Alamo.
A beautiful staircase in The St. Anthony Hotel.
A picture from the lobby.
A huge fireplace in the lobby.
My breakfast from room service - Vanilla Bean Pancakes with Pralines and a sliced banana. It was really good!
A picture of our room, but it is huge, so this was all I could get in one picture. It has 2 bathrooms!
Here is the TV and desk, the bathrooms are on either side.
All the doorknobs are glass, they remind me of crystal balls.
I thought the mail chute was neat. It goes all the way to the top floor. You can just drop your mail in and it goes all the way to the bottom floor. I haven't seen any mail being dropped yet, but I think that would be neat, too. I am easily amused I guess :)
Daddy & Raia on the haunted stage...We will have more pictures of this later, but the camera has died.
A beautiful stained glass cross at the Methodist Church across the street. I think it is called Travis Street Methodist Church.
And here is the steeple. Again, we have better pics, but the camera is dead. I will post the better ones later.
Here is one cute little girl and her new ducky (the night before we took it to the pool).
I will have more pictures of the little cutie pie as soon as the camera is charged up again, but here is a short video of her in her swimsuit just before going to the pool with her ducky - which she wanted nothing to do with once we got there!
Monday, July 20, 2009
San Antonio
Nathan has to work in San Antonio this week, so Raia and I are tagging along (yeah!). We came here once before about 6 months ago, but only stayed one night. This time we get to stay 6 days, so I am really excited! The only thing that we have to pay for out of our pocket is whatever we spend over $25 for dinner. His company pays for everything else, isn't that great?! Last night for dinner, we ate on the River Walk at a restaurant called Zuni. Nathan had a crab meat stuffed avacado salad, and I had the most amazing burger (haha, I know...). Raia shared with both of us, and I am so glad she liked the crab meat! Grand total for our meal? Around $9. Our first night here we stayed in the Crockett Hotel; it is right behind The Alamo. We have learned in our one night here so far that we have to unplug the room telephone, as Raia has been picking it up, dialing, and then holding full conversations with whoever she thinks is on the other end LOL! It is quite funny, but I don't think the other hotel guests (or whoever she dialed) appreciate her calls! They put us in a room right next to the ice machine, so we heard people getting ice all night long. I swear, the entire floor needed ice between 1 am and 5 am. And, the air conditioner in the room is a MONSTER...so loud. For the rest of our trip we will be staying in The St. Anthony Hotel, which is haunted. Yeah...can you feel my excitement? I will see if I can catch some orbs or ghostly beings on film.
Since Nathan will be at work during the day while we are here, Raia and I will be taking full advantage of the cable TV and pool! In the evenings, we will have to see what we can get into down here as a family.
I think that's all I've got for now :) Thanks for checking in!
Glad Game:
1.) I am so glad Nathan took this awesome job!
2.) I am glad we made it here safe and sound.
3.) I am glad I have such great friends who helped me fill my shifts at work so I could come to San Antonio.
4.) I am so glad I got to talk to my mom and Aunt Flo for their birthdays, even though I called a day late for Aunt Flo's. It was so good to talk to both of them!
5.) I am so glad I have a beautiful, happy, healthy little girl, and that she loves her Mommy so much! She makes it all worthwhile!
xoxox~
Since Nathan will be at work during the day while we are here, Raia and I will be taking full advantage of the cable TV and pool! In the evenings, we will have to see what we can get into down here as a family.
I think that's all I've got for now :) Thanks for checking in!
Glad Game:
1.) I am so glad Nathan took this awesome job!
2.) I am glad we made it here safe and sound.
3.) I am glad I have such great friends who helped me fill my shifts at work so I could come to San Antonio.
4.) I am so glad I got to talk to my mom and Aunt Flo for their birthdays, even though I called a day late for Aunt Flo's. It was so good to talk to both of them!
5.) I am so glad I have a beautiful, happy, healthy little girl, and that she loves her Mommy so much! She makes it all worthwhile!
xoxox~
Friday, July 17, 2009
My latest sweet surprises
These were for a little boy turning 3. I did a Go! Diego, Go! cake and cupcakes for him last year, too.
I will update more a little later, sorry for the quick post here.
xoxox~
Thursday, July 9, 2009
Been a long week!
Sorry it has been a while since my last update! Hope everyone had a wonderful 4th of July! This will be a picture heavy post, with a video or two thrown in for good measure - I need to get everyone caught up!
We decided to take a trip down to Kemah and Galveston for the day for the 4th of July. It's only and hour or two drive to get there, and the only thing we bought was food, so it was a really CHEAP day-cation!
Our first stop was near Baytown and La Porte to see the Battleship Texas and the San Jacinto Monument. We only stayed a few minutes. This is the only picture worth posting; our camera really doesn't take the best pictures.
When we got to Kemah, the first place we went was to the little water fountain play area for the kids; it is kinda hard to miss it as it is right smack in the middle of everything else. Raia wanted to play...
She had the BEST time in the water, and screamed bloody murder when we had to leave! That was a sight, I'm sure LOL! Thank goodness I brought a change of clothes for her...
At lunch, she had her very own glass! She is such a big girl now :) The lemonade we ordered for her just would not do, and she insisted on the Diet Coke her Daddy and I were having...
So after lunch we left Kemah and headed to Galveston. Some strange sights along the way - namely this HUGE cross, standing taller than all of the many power stations all around it. I had to take a picture. It reminded me of the big cross that they stole in the show Weeds on Showtime...
Keep in mind, the cross is BEHIND the power station and power lines.
I'm not sure what this is, but it is pretty. I'm thinking it was a really old house that was made into a restaurant or a museum or something. We didn't stop, but we will next time.
Next, we passed the Flagship Hotel, which was damaged during Ike. I took a picture from the internet to show a before picture:
And here is after Ike:
Wow.
We finally made it down to the beach after driving around for about an hour or so looking for a spot to park. It was crowded!
I guess after living in Southern Alabama for so long, I am a spoiled beach brat. I love the powdery white sands of Panama City and Destin/Fort Walton, and the clear blue waters. Galveston was kind of a disappointment. I knew going in that it was going to be brown sand and dark water, but the sand was sticky, and it smelled...don't get me wrong, it's not like we will never go again, I'm just saying I must be spoiled, haha!
Raia had such a good time, she sacked out on the way home. Isn't she so cute?
Last, we headed home for the fireworks show that they hold in Town Center. We got there a little early, so, instead of sweating outside, we sat in the van and let Raia watch Elmo on Daddy's work computer. I don't know why we didn't think of this before!
Sorry, as I am sure you can tell by all my pictures, our camera is just NOT made to take pictures, so I didn't take any of the fireworks. They were beautiful, though. Raia enjoyed them last year, but this year was terrified of them. She did watch them, but only if she was holding tightly to Nathan or I.
Well, this post has taken most of the afternoon to upload, so I am going to skip the glad game today. Just know that I am glad for friends, family, air conditioner, and my beautiful, healthy little girl.
Thanks for checking in! I hope you all had a wonderful holiday!
xoxox~
We decided to take a trip down to Kemah and Galveston for the day for the 4th of July. It's only and hour or two drive to get there, and the only thing we bought was food, so it was a really CHEAP day-cation!
Our first stop was near Baytown and La Porte to see the Battleship Texas and the San Jacinto Monument. We only stayed a few minutes. This is the only picture worth posting; our camera really doesn't take the best pictures.
When we got to Kemah, the first place we went was to the little water fountain play area for the kids; it is kinda hard to miss it as it is right smack in the middle of everything else. Raia wanted to play...
She had the BEST time in the water, and screamed bloody murder when we had to leave! That was a sight, I'm sure LOL! Thank goodness I brought a change of clothes for her...
At lunch, she had her very own glass! She is such a big girl now :) The lemonade we ordered for her just would not do, and she insisted on the Diet Coke her Daddy and I were having...
So after lunch we left Kemah and headed to Galveston. Some strange sights along the way - namely this HUGE cross, standing taller than all of the many power stations all around it. I had to take a picture. It reminded me of the big cross that they stole in the show Weeds on Showtime...
Keep in mind, the cross is BEHIND the power station and power lines.
I'm not sure what this is, but it is pretty. I'm thinking it was a really old house that was made into a restaurant or a museum or something. We didn't stop, but we will next time.
Next, we passed the Flagship Hotel, which was damaged during Ike. I took a picture from the internet to show a before picture:
And here is after Ike:
Wow.
We finally made it down to the beach after driving around for about an hour or so looking for a spot to park. It was crowded!
I guess after living in Southern Alabama for so long, I am a spoiled beach brat. I love the powdery white sands of Panama City and Destin/Fort Walton, and the clear blue waters. Galveston was kind of a disappointment. I knew going in that it was going to be brown sand and dark water, but the sand was sticky, and it smelled...don't get me wrong, it's not like we will never go again, I'm just saying I must be spoiled, haha!
Raia had such a good time, she sacked out on the way home. Isn't she so cute?
Last, we headed home for the fireworks show that they hold in Town Center. We got there a little early, so, instead of sweating outside, we sat in the van and let Raia watch Elmo on Daddy's work computer. I don't know why we didn't think of this before!
Sorry, as I am sure you can tell by all my pictures, our camera is just NOT made to take pictures, so I didn't take any of the fireworks. They were beautiful, though. Raia enjoyed them last year, but this year was terrified of them. She did watch them, but only if she was holding tightly to Nathan or I.
Well, this post has taken most of the afternoon to upload, so I am going to skip the glad game today. Just know that I am glad for friends, family, air conditioner, and my beautiful, healthy little girl.
Thanks for checking in! I hope you all had a wonderful holiday!
xoxox~
Thursday, July 2, 2009
Wednesday, July 1, 2009
Not much to update, we are all doing fine. I have just a few pictures to share.
Spending some quality time with Daddy, watching Sesame Street on the computer.
Raia has found the only cool spot in the house...guess we need a refrigerator lock now too!! It has been SO HOT! No rain in over 35 days until just yesterday, and then it was only a mist. Walking outside is like walking into a bowl of hot soup. Boo :(
Well, that's all the time I have to update for today. Thanks for checking in!
xoxox~
Spending some quality time with Daddy, watching Sesame Street on the computer.
Raia has found the only cool spot in the house...guess we need a refrigerator lock now too!! It has been SO HOT! No rain in over 35 days until just yesterday, and then it was only a mist. Walking outside is like walking into a bowl of hot soup. Boo :(
Well, that's all the time I have to update for today. Thanks for checking in!
xoxox~
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
