Turns out our weekend wasn't so boring!

We thought we were going into a very boring, plan-free weekend, which suited us just fine, but it turned out to be sort of the opposite!

On Friday I got a call from my mother-in-law inviting me to lunch and to hit some new (to me) shops. Of course, I was in! We ate lunch at Ashland House tea room (it's sort of north of I-10 behind Ikea, if you're familiar with the area in Houston), which I hadn't been to since a wedding shower I had there. It was scrumptious! Kind of an "in-town" RJ Goodie's substitute for me since Spring/Klein is kind of a long drive just for chicken salad... Then we went to Out of the Box, a shop near Second Baptist Church. I highly recommend! They have the CUTEST things - baby and kids' stuff, kitchen things, jewelry and accessories, clothes. A great store if you need to pick up a little gift, and the owner monograms in 2 days and wraps gifts! Then we went by Kuhl-Linscomb near Whole Foods on Alabama at Kirby. That place is crazy! There are 5 buildings you can shop in and they have everything. It was almost overwhelming to me! House stuff, beauty stuff, baby stuff, linens, dishes...and we only went in 2 of the buildings. Lastly we visited eDish, which is in the Antiques Pavilion on Westheimer between Kirby and Shepherd. They have every pattern of china and crystal that's been discontinued and their stores are closing, so it's all 35% off or something. Judy completed some more of her china and crystal earlier and wanted to show me what the place was all about. They had the prettiest antique-looking set of pink and white china and pink glasses that would be so cute for hosting a tea or wedding or baby shower. I am sorta creative....but I don't think quite creative enough to coordinate antique china like that. They seriously have every pattern though - even Christmas Spode! They also had my wedding china, which is still in production, but Judy said someone must be selling it for money or due to a divorce, so it's not all discontinued stuff either. Needless to say, it was a busy afternoon! Jeremy happened to get off work at a decent hour and Tony got in from business in Dallas all around the same time, so we went to dinner at Cafe Red Onion (YUM!) and then I crashed.

Saturday I had a bunch of errands I wanted to run that I had been putting off, so we ate at Chick-fil-a, hit the Galleria, swung by Crave and put together some goodies for new mom Tracy and dropped them off...then we headed home because we kept getting stuck in traffic and were tired. It doesn't sound like we did much though! We ate dinner with the Harbs at Black Walnut in Rice Village (my new favorite restaurant because you can get gelato after your meal!) and crashed again on the early side.

Sunday we finished the errands from Saturday - lunch at Chipotle, a trip to Michael's so I can get crafty for baby Emma, Petsmart, cleaners and an unsuccessful trip to Sugarbaby's (yes, for you Houstonians in the know, we hit TWO cupcake places this weekend...thank goodness one was closed, I guess!), who thinks they can be closed on Sunday and Monday. Rude. While I was painting yesterday afternoon Jeremy got a call from his boss. Typically, this is bad news, especially at 4pm on a Sunday. Yesterday, however, it was good news! Jeremy found out he was getting a bonus and promoted plus stock for his promotion. He works incredibly hard at his job and really enjoys what he's doing, so I am mostly excited his boss and supervisors recognize his drive for excellence and how good he is at what he does, but the increased benjamins just make it an even better treat! Way to go, babe! You're the best financial analyzer of intellectual property for patent infringement (slash-fraud) lawsuits ever! We went out to Benjy's on Washington (the new one) to celebrate with Jeremy's parents last night. We are all SO PROUD of you, J!!

Ever since I started working I am telling you 100% I am always seeing how God provides for us. We are blessed with generous sets of parents who help us in many ways, and that is part of it, but any time I start to feel anxious about being able to pay for something, God swoops in and just provides. Right now we are in desperate need of fixing our fence, still from Ike, and it was going to be a tight squeeze whenever we pulled the trigger on that. Apparently wood is expensive? It's just nice to know we can do that now and not be anxious about it. PTL!

Command those who are rich in this present world not to be arrogant nor to put their hope in wealth, which is so uncertain, but to put their hope in God, who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment. - 1 Timothy 6:17

So this is kind of starting to be a long post...bear with me here...

There were also some health issues this weekend. Jeremy's uncle had undergone surgery for prostate cancer, which was successful. He spiked a fever last week and they ended up going to the emergency room Thursday night. Well, almost 24 hours later (yuck!!) I believe they determined there was no infection and that he could get the drain removed from his leg this week. That is such a blessing because this drain is keeping him from driving, working, and just living normally again. Prayers that his health continues to get better! Also, Jeremy's Meemaw suffered (what seemed to be) a minor stroke on Sunday morning. We were of course alarmed at this news, but it seems like as far as strokes go, there was decent news. She is totally fine now, no lasting effects from it. I think the only concern now is that it wasn't a precursor to a bigger one, so they kept her in the hospital overnight to run some tests. Judy was trying to make it out to Conroe this morning to meet with the doctor and hear what he had to say. Prayers there for Meemaw's health, her family and the doctor's wisdom - she is one tough cookie, y'all. The good news is Baby Katy (Meemaw's great-granddaughter and Uncle D's granddaughter) is having her first birthday this Saturday! How can you not be cheered up by a sweet 1 year old? It should be a lot of fun!

I'm also thinking happy, relaxed, stress-free thoughts for Becky (and any other teachers out there) as the TAKS test is this week. Love you, B!!

Reasons to be excited for me this week:
-I donated $25 to MDA through my company this week and get to wear jeans every day! Totally worth it, plus Apache matched, so I really donated $50.
-Annie and I are bowling on Friday as a fundraiser for MDA. Let's hope my Wii bowling practice pays off! (It won't. I was terrible at my brother's birthday party.)
-I am getting my hair colored tomorrow. By a professional. Not in my bathroom for $7. Wahoo!

Did I plug enough restaurants/shops in this blog? I should be getting paid for this!

That's all! Meagan out.