9 Days

I know I haven't been very good about keeping up with this blog, mainly there hasn't been too many things of interest to put on here, and I have been busy lately. It seems I have been traveling a lot recently, Iowa over Thanksgiving, Kansas City for one of my best college friend's bachlorette party, then some work trips. I have to go to Houston on Monday and Tuesday next week, and am dreading all of the holiday travelers at Hobby, I know it is going to be insane. Why someone would want to set up a meeting the week of Christmas is beyond me but at least I will get it overwith and so far do not have any travel plans in the month of January, hooray!

I cannot believe Christmas is around the corner, Cam and I have some very special news to share but I will save that for a later post. We get to see Blake in 9 days!! Cam is flying up to Iowa, and will be flying him back to Texas so we get to spend the holidays at our home. I am beyond excited to be able to have him at our house, plus we get to avoid the extremely cold winter Iowa is currently having right now. While I will miss my in-laws (I really have the best!) I am excited to be in Texas, and looking forward to having my family over for "our" Christmas on Dec 27th. Blake is at such a fun age and I think he is really going to like his gifts and what Santa has brought him.

Cam and I are so lucky to have such great parents, and I know my parents are really excited to get to see Blake! We have big plans over our Christmas break, we will also be taking a family road trip to Tulsa, OK for New Years to attend my BF's wedding. Lots of fun things to come, love getting to see old friends and catching up.

We got to webcam with Blake last night while he was at Cam's parents house, and it was great to see his face. Super excited to have our little guy with us, and have a family Christmas this year in Texas!

Wishing everyone else a very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!!! Maybe in 2011 I will be better at blogging! :)

Busy Month

Work has been super busy lately. My travel has picked up a little bit and involved going to Houston and Chicago this month, with some other account visits in the metroplex. I normally love getting out of the office for account visits, but work has been so busy lately its been hard to keep up and find enough hours in the day.

I feel like I am finally back on track from having Blake here. I am getting back into my old groove and am back to getting things done. While he was here I was so busy, then when he left it felt like I had nothing to do, and I stopped taking care of things I needed to get done. I guess I needed the break or something, but am happy to report I am back! Now I just need to get back to my regualr gym visits and all will be well. Cam and I have been going to the gym a couple mornings a week but its not easy getting up at 5am.

Cam has been traveling a lot lately, last week he was in Charlotte, NC on a boys trip and this week he leaves Thursday for a business trip, which then turns into his Iowa visit to see Blake. He will be home Monday after work. I hate missing out on trips to visit Blake, but flying us both up there every month just doesn't make sense. I figure this way Blake gets some quality time with his Daddy, which I am sure he will enjoy. Thank goodness for technology, what did we ever do before? Hopefully we can webcam a couple of times and I can talk to him.

It is funny whenever we webcam with Blake (when he is with Cam's parents) he always asks to see both the puppies, and then he wants to see his room, and certain toys he has left behind. It amazes me what he remembers, and overtime we show him his big boy room he gets a huge smile on his face and giggles. His laugh is infectious.

Thanksgiving can not get here fast enough. I am going to spend the weekend doing some Christmas shopping for Blake and I am so excited about it!! We want to get him a bike, he will be 4 in March and is 53 inches tall. Have any of you bought a bike yet? I didn't know what size to buy and need to do some research before I go shopping. I know he will continue to grow so we want to get something he can ride for at least a couple of years. There are so many different sizes, I didn't know what would be best.

Getting to celebrate Christmas with a 3 1/2 year old makes it so exciting. I love the holiday season!!

St. Louis

Cam and I had wanted to try and take a weekend trip somewhere before the holidays but quickly realized the majority of our weekends were busy. We have so much going on this time of year, fall just always seems to be so hectic. After realizing there was no "good" weekend to go away Cam suggested I tag along on a business trip of his to St. Louis. My first reaction was well its not Vegas, but it beats not going anywhere.

Then Cam informed me that his company would pay for my flight, so basically it would be a free trip, and since I had PTO to burn it seemed like a no brainer. The hotel we would be staying at was a new casino off the river and it looked really nice. Cam didn't have much to do during the day so we could spend time together and get to see parts of St. Louis. I agreed to go, it was better than spending 5 days apart so off we went to St. Louis.

The trip had a rough start, the hotel we thought we were staying at turned out to be the Four Seasons and was adjacent to our hotel, but ours was called the Lumiere and was not quite as nice. Not bad, but nothing compared to the four seasons, it was basically a re-modeled old Embassy Suites. They didn't have our room ready and seemed to be pretty overwhelmed by all the people checking in for the conference at 4pm on Wednesday. Everyday we were there both of our hotel keys would stop working. It was such a pain. I think the breaking point for me was when I went to take a water out of the fridge and realized when the cap didn't click that the water bottle had previously been open and was re-filled and placed back into the refrigerator!! GROSS!!

Cam ended up having work meetings during the day so I decided to explore St. Louis by myself. They had a pretty nice galleria, and had an H&M store so it was fun to go shopping. I was able to meet some friends of Cam's from back in the day so it was fun to hear old stories about him. The weather was amazing everyday, and I enjoyed the fall like weather. Since our hotel wasn't the best, a friend of ours gave me a key to his 2000 sq ft penthouse suite at the four seasons. It was awesome!! I went and worked during the day and watched TV in the suite instead of staying in our room. Cam got to come up there and meet me for lunch.

The Entry Way

The Main living area

(further down was the media room, office and another full bathroom)

The Office

The Master Bedroom

The Master Bath

The View

On Saturday we met up with my Uncle Steve and Aunt Jayne. They live in Highland, IL where my dad grew up, so we rented a Harley Friday afternoon and went riding with them and a couple of other people on Saturday. They took us to a bar called Fast Eddie's which evidently sells the most beer out of any bar in Illinois, even bars in Chicago. The place was packed! It was in the middle of no where but had at least 400 people inside. Getting to see the sights on the back of a motorcycle is such a different experience. Cam used to have a Harley when he lived in Austin, but sold it when he moved to Dallas. He loves riding motorcycles and it doesn't help my dad has a Harley and is constantly encouraging Cam to get a bike. Its fun to do once in a while, and it really is nice to go ride in small towns where you don't have to worry about traffic, but it is just so dangerous here. I would really rather him not own a bike, and just rent one on occasion when he feels the itch. So far that has been working for us.

It made the trip really fun, and we got to see some pretty areas of Illinois and Missouri. Luckily we got the bike returned in time, and then we headed back to the hotel to get ready for dinner. St. Louis has an area called the hill, where there are tons of homemade Italian restaurants. We met my family at an Italian place there and had the BEST homemade Italian food. I felt like I was back in Italy, it was so good. We really ended up enjoying our trip, minus the ghetto hotel and crazy homeless people (Another story). It is always fun to get away from Dallas, from responsibility and just enjoy our time as a couple. It worked out even better not costing much! Maybe next year we can plan a real trip away, but in the mean time it worked out perfectly and I am glad I got to tag along.

Blake

I wanted to post some pictures of Blake. It starts with some recent photos all the way to when he was a week or so old. So sad how fast they grow up! He is such a cutie, maybe I am a little bias. :)

September Visit to Iowa

We finally got to visit Blake in September, it was the first time we had seen him since he had to go back to his mom after his summer stay with us. It was so great to get to spend some time with him, and as usual he had grown taller, and had increased his vocabulary. He pronounces his C's as T's. For instance he will tell you something is cool, but it sounds like he is saying, "That is Tool!" It is so adorable, and he still calls me "Bagon." He had already out grown his jeans from Christmas so we had to get him 5T's from old navy and luckily the length works. I think he had worn his old pants maybe one or two times, I didn't realize how fast he would grow out of them. We technically should have gotten him a size 6 but they are just way to big around the waist and he is swimming in them. I am hoping these pants (we only got him 2 pairs this time) will last all winter and through the spring. Thank goodness he comes to Texas in the summers because he can still fit in all 3T's for shorts, he is so skinny but his legs are just way to long.

I cannot believe how fast he is growing up. He is talking so much more, and was in a really good mood for our visit. We had a lot of fun. It gets harder and harder to have to say goodbye to him, and Cam is going back up to Iowa in October to see him. We decided to drive up over Thanksgiving so we can take the dogs with us, and try and save some money since flights are so much more expensive around Holidays. Then Cam is flying up on Christmas Day to pick him up, they will fly back to Dallas and we will spend Christmas here. I am already planning out his week stay here over Christmas.

We found out he is going to be a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle for Halloween and we got to see some really cute pics. I love Halloween, it is one of my favorite holidays, after Christmas of course. I hope one day we can take Blake trick-or-treating for Halloween, that would be so much fun! I put together a little package for him that I will mail off in about a week. Hope he enjoys his Halloween card and Halloween stickers.

We are missing him like crazy but luckily have been able to webcam with him whenever Cam's parents babysit him. In 5 months our little man will be 4!!! Completely crazy how fast time flies by!

Blog Layout

Wow I hadn't been able to check out my blog in a while and had no idea my background had gone away. TERRIBLE. Now I need to spend some time getting this put back together.

Work has been really busy lately and by the time I have gotten home, walked the dogs, cooked dinner, and did laundry/cleaned, Cam and I try to watch a show or two and then it is time for bed. I assume it's because of football season, and the Rangers continuing on, but I feel like we have been spending a lot of time watching sports. Fall always seems so busy!

I am LOVING this weather, so enjoyable!! For whatever reason this summer seemed worse than usual, so hot and so humid, other then my tan there isn't much I miss about summer.

More to post later and hopefully I can find a fabulous new background!

Hibiscus

Was delicious! We left stuffed and happy. We did the usual Dungeness crab dip, sooooo good. I got the beef tenderloin and Cam got their crusted chicken, they were both heaven. We shared the macaroni and cheese family side. We couldn't finish it so we took the rest home. For dessert we each had the ice box cake, Oreo crust, vanilla ice cream cake with Butterfinger on top and chocolate drizzle to top it off.

We had such a great time, and look forward to our next visit to Hibiscus. I highly recommend it! I think we are also going to try the new Bailey's that opened up in Allen. I will keep you posted!

Back to our lazy Sunday, enjoying some couch time.

Restaurant Week

It is my favorite time of year!! Restaurant Week in Dallas! I love getting to go to new restaurants or just ones I love at such a cheap price!! The food is always excellent and Cam and I get to make lots of mini dates out of it.

Tomorrow we are going to one of our favorites, Hibiscus. I have been saving up calories waiting to eat all of the fabulousness Hibiscus has to offer. I just can't decide if we want to use our free 4th course at Hibiscus or at another restaurant we visit....decisions....decisions.

Not only do you get to venture to top-of-the-line restaurants for $35 a person but you get an excuse to go shopping at central market and for every $25 you spend you get a free 4th course, at the restaurant of your choice!!! I did my CM shopping on Saturday and got 2 stuffed pinwheel steaks, came home that night and cooked dinner for Cam and my high school friend Cara. We ate a great meal, complete with Strawberry Shortcake and drank John Daly's! It was such a fun night to catch up.

Tomorrow I am going to enjoy a great date with my wonderful husband, have a good glass of wine, and tasty food I could only dream of making myself.

I will keep you posted on what we eat and our review!

Next week Al Biernat's!

Hot Date Weekend

Super excited about our first kid-free weekend with nothing to do. While we miss Blake terribly it is nice to think of a weekend all to ourselves, with as much quiet free time as we want.

I have so missed being able to see adult movies, or for that matter anything that is not animated, and I am super excited to go to dinner with my husband and possibly get a margarita...maybe two. :)

Our house has gotten some what back to normal, I had to travel for work, and had a lot going on this week so things have been crazy. I desperately need to clean our house, top to bottom, and I have some serious laundry calling my name. I plan on going to my private piliates class Saturday morning and then spend the afternoon catching up on household chores. Sounds like fun doesn't it?

Cam and I are going to go to dinner to eat at the new Cyclone Anaya's restaurant that opened up in Allen down the street and enjoy a date night. I love Cyclone A's, hopefully this new location is as good as the others. We have plans to see Inception at the Imax theater and that is about it for the weekend.

Cannot wait to get my work done, thank goodness I do not work past 4:00 and then I will be home ready to relax and enjoy some quality time with Cam. I have so much respect for my friends with kids, I do not know how you do it. Hopefully someday we will have a child of our own, but for now I am enjoying our life just the way it is.

Hope everyone has a great weekend!

End of Our Summer Visit

Today has been a tough day. I dropped Cam and Blake off at the airport today, so that they could fly back to Iowa and Blake could be returned to his mom on Sunday.

Ending a visit with Blake is never easy, after having him for six weeks it is almost unbearable. I know it is going to be even more tough for Cam when I pick him up at the airport tomorrow. We had such a great summer and I hope to post some pictures soon. I was trying to spend as much time with Blake as we could, so I haven't posted much. Hopefully over the next couple of weeks I can catch up!

Blake was sad to leave today and I was given tons of kisses and hugs. I love hearing Blake say my name, it sounds like Bagon instead of Megan and it is just precious.

He said goodbye to his room, to his Texas house, to Ruby and Bailey and he kept asking why I wasn't coming along. I packed a secret surprise in his backpack that included a card with toy story stickers, and a Cars coloring book complete with markers. Cam sent me several videos of Blake saying goodbye, saying he loved me, and then his reaction to his surprise. It was adorable and I cried the whole way home.

Our house is so quiet, Blake's laughter and monster truck noises will be terribly missed. I cannot wait for our September visit and I am so excited that Blake is coming back to Texas for Christmas. I cannot wait to celebrate Christmas in our home as a family and have Santa visit Blake here. It is going to be so much fun.

I know it is all part of the gig but that doesn't make it any easier. I look forward to getting my husband back tomorrow, but it just will not be the same without our little Blakey.

Dad's Life

Cam has a 3 year old son from a previous relationship, while it wasn't exactly planned, he jumped in head first into his "daddy" role and does such an amazing job with Blake. Cam had to teach me how to change diapers, and he knows way more about taking care of a child than I do. I feel blessed to have a husband that does so much and has taken care of his son all by himself .

I do not think Dad's get the credit they deserve, so many dads, mine included were great fathers. They played with us, and were just as involved as our mothers.

My husband is a great father, and Blake is lucky to have a dad who makes him a priority even though he lives 12 hours away. It is so hard for him to not be able to see Blake everyday and no parent or child for that matter should have to be so far away from each other. It is an unfortunate circumstance but we deal with it the best we can and hope and pray someday Blake will want to move to Texas!

Anyway the reason for this post was to show a video a friend sent to me, I could not stop laughing. Cam and I watched it together tonight and we got a kick out of it. Maybe you have already seen it, but its a tribute to all those "involved" fathers out there. We couldn't do it without you! :)

Dad's Life Video - Let me know what you think!

New Beginnings

I have finally decided to join the blog bandwagon and start a blog. I figured it would be a good way to keep up with family and friends and be able to share pictures and events going on in our life. I cannot promise it will be all that exciting but I am sure there will be some funny moments to share here and there.

Currently we are in the middle of our summer visit with Blake and we are loving it. He is so funny at 3 and we have enjoyed having him with us every minute, its hard to imagine what life was like without having him here and I dread when he has to leave us.

Some exciting pictures from the Dallas World Aquarium.