Happy Birthday To Me

On July 23 I turned 49 years young. When Toby told me that we could do ANYTHING I wanted for my birthday I have to admit I got a little excited. Opening the shop has taken up most of our time with all work and no play for the past couple of months so when I was given free reign to pick something fun to do for a day a million ideas popped into my head at once....thrifting, going to see The Conjuring at the movie theatre, a local winery, etc.

Even though it was MY birthday I wanted to do something Toby and Skye would enjoy also. If other people around me aren't having fun then I'm not either...one of my weird idiosyncrasies.

So after careful thought I decided on Barton Creek. I had just recently received a new map I had ordered of the hiking trail along the creek and I wanted to check out some areas of the creek we have not hiked. I love the outdoors, hiking, and the creek and so does Toby...and Skye can always be lured to the creek as long as we have drinking water and snacks, and it has rained recently enough for the water to be flowing in the creek. And of course Bo is always happy to jump in the car no matter where we are going.

First we stopped at Taco Cabana for lunch. When we go to the creek and have Bo we always eat at Taco Cabana because they have an outdoor patio that is pet friendly....

We parked in an access spot that we had never parked before. The hike down to the creek was about a half mile or so. When I say DOWN I do mean DOWN. The whole way I was thinking what a workout that hill was going to be going back up....and it was!!!!! It was called the "Hill of Life" on my handy dandy map...I think it should have been called the "Hill of Death"...lol

Resting on the creek side...

This was such a peaceful spot....

Bo catching fish

Rocks in the water are very slippery...be careful!!

Toby relaxing on the falls

Even though I immensely missed Lucas being here this year we did spend some time on Facetime together in the evening hours.

I have good memories to look back on for my 49th birthday. It's always the simplest things that make my heart happy.

Lights, Camera, Action!

Monday night "Bling"from the Bling Johnson Show came over to help us out with some commercial advertising. Toby and Bling have a bartering relationship when it comes to business.... really, Toby has a bartering relationship with most all his "hired help".

In a rare occurrence it rained all day Monday so we had only two volunteers out of the many that volunteered brave enough to get out and battle Austin traffic in a rain storm...or that's what I'm attributing it to anyway.

I'm sure "Bling" will make it work. I hope he doesn't think I didn't notice that he inconspicuously lured me into a couple of  the scenes. I am soooooo not photogenic or T.V. personality. I am much more comfortable behind the scenes....

Toby is not fashion savvy in the least. He doesn't realize that his pants are now 3 sizes too big, 10 years out of date,  and that white socks and black shoes are an unacceptable way to present yourself unless you are wearing black Patton and a  five year old girl headed to Sunday School. I am going to have a serious conversation with him about this very soon.

Never a dull day lately......

Block Party - July 4th

I just recently realized that I was about to forget to post about one of the best times I have had in a while...our 4th of July neighborhood block party.

I am more than grateful that I have good neighbors. When you buy a home you always have a 50/50 chance where neighbors are concerned.  Anyway, we are all mostly recluse and to ourselves except on those occasions when the weather is pleasant enough to hang out outside or a holiday, birthday, or other special occasion party is in order.

This year my immediate neighbor and his roommate organized a block party for the 4th.  I was really looking forward to it because Toby would be in transition from "employed" to business owner and would be able to attend. In the past he has always been at work during our impromptu neighborhood gatherings.

I had a really good time. I met a few new people and everyone was on good behavior and having a good time.

Hosts, Derick and Leena

Dancing the Wobble

Leena hosing off the hot kids

Food! Lots of it!! Yum

Toby guarding the Margarita machine

Ice Cream

More Dancing

Fireworks

Best Independence Day celebration I've had in awhile!!

Spinning

I have procrastinated on writing this post because I have not had much uninterrupted free time to sit down and dedicate to posting on my online memory bank. With opening the new shop and all that time/work it has entailed, blogging has not been at the top of the priority list.

So I guess I will summarize as best I can and try not to end up rambling or repeating events that I have already posted about.

My brother and his family visited in early July. It was a short but sweet visit. My niece Megan will be graduating next year so they were wanting to do a bit of early college shopping.

We explored the University of Texas but first we checked out the LBJ Library Museum on campus. Yes, I secretly want UT to be the college of choice!! Nothing would make me happier than having my niece close by..

Interesting enough Toby, Skye and I had visited the LBJ Library a few years ago and I really enjoyed it. This time it claimed to be "improved". Maybe it's just me, but I didn't like the "improvement". I remembered the museum being much more interesting before the "improvement" part...

It didn't really matter anyway, it was the company I was with that made it the most fun....

After the museum we headed on over to the admissions office at UT. There were some friendly creatures awaiting a snack along the way.....

Heading up towards the UT Tower...

I believe the UT inspection was a success. My fingers are crossed.....

Next, here are some updated photos of Gridlock Tattoo....

Waiting Area

Tattoo Station Room

Open area for growth

I'm pretty proud of what we have done. It's not perfect yet and we have tons more work to do but thanks to the many people we have supporting and helping us out we are watching it unfold quite nicely.

More random pics from the past couple of weeks....

Bo is helping "clean up"

Now that all the hard work has been done (at least for me anyway) I'm hoping to have a little more time to blog on our daily happenings.