Coming Soon...

I promise that my post about Seattle is coming soon...work and life have just gotten in the way, but hopefully this will help tide you over until I can finish it.

Erin and I with all the beautiful flowers at Pikes Place Market

A few things I learned about Seattle:

* There are 98 Starbuck's within a 5 mile radius of downtown. And these people don't even really like Starbuck's - they prefer Tully's (another chain) or independent coffee shops.

* Seattle has 230 overcast days each year and 190 completely cloudy with ZERO sunshine days. Four of the overcast days were while I was there. But, the sun did break through several times and Sunday afternoon was beautiful!

* The Space Needle wasn't the original name of the Seattle landmark, but a nickname that stuck after a reporter who was making fun said that the tower looked like a flying saucer.

* The original name of Seattle was Duwomp. Seriously! I'm going to start referring to Erin and Brian as Duwompers. Too bad they don't live in the Seattle suburb of Fremont, then I could call them Fremonsters!

New Hairdo

I've loved having long hair, but all of a sudden it was just too long and started driving me crazy!! You know that feeling when you wake up one day and suddenly you can't wait another minute for a visit to the salon?? Well, I reached that point...and made an appointment to see my fabulous hairstylist Jennifer ASAP!

Before

These "after" photos are especially for you, sis...

After - Not the greatest photo of me

And from the back

A little history here...before the wedding I had a horrible time deciding how to wear my hair...everyone was giving me lots of advice, but all I knew was that I just wanted to look "like me" that day. I made many trips to visit my hairstylist Jennifer for practice hairdos. After each session, I would somehow manage to take photos of my hair by myself - I didn't want to ask Mike for help because I didn't want him to see anything related to the wedding day, but I wanted to email photos to my mom and sister for their opinions. Well, after many rounds of photos, I realized that I needed to see what the hair styles would look like with my strapless dress...I didn't have a tube top handy, so I did the next best thing...I didn't think anything of it until I sent them the photos and their only response was - "ARE YOU NAKED??"

Can I keep her?

Landri and Alison

At the baby shower in Houston, I met this adorable little girl. Landri is 2 1/2 and just about the cutest thing I have ever seen. Her mom and I hit it off right away and had lots to talk about. Landri and I played outside after the shower and she even sang me a few verses of "Deep in the Heart of Texas."


Mike, can I keep her...please??

I mean, she is named for Tom Landry after all!

Hungry Hungry Hippo

Only one month in and I am already a bad blogger! This past week was super busy at work, although I did have the opportunity to work from home on Thursday and Friday. On Thursday I was a bit ADD, but by Friday I had the hang of it. I was only planning to work from home on Thursday, but when my boss called Friday morning and encourage me to just stay home and not try to drive in the SNOW, I was happy to oblige her! It was actually nice to be away from all the distractions of the office and just get caught up on things!

Because of the weather, Mike was home too on Friday. We had a good day...even if he did get to play more than I did! I also discovered the major danger of working from home - the kitchen! I ate all day long! First it was breakfat, then lunch, and then basically snacks all afternoon long! And at the end of the day I realized, I was never really that hungry.

America's Next Top Model?

Many weeks ago I agreed to be a model in the Junior League Fashion Show during the Community Volunteer Fair at NorthPark Mall. I have to admit that at the time it seemed like no big deal, but the closer the day came the more nervous I got. And the news that the runway would actually go around a fountain (filled with water!) didn't make me any more confident that I wouldn't end up as fashion road kill.

Finally the day of my fitting arrived and after having all my clothing selections deemed "BORING" by the show coordinator, I walked back into the Dillards dressing room to the words of "I have the perfect dress for you!" And into my arms was flung the tiniest turquoise blue strappy dress. It was one of those dresses that folds up on itself and looks like nothing on the hanger. I was left standing there wondering how I would ever fit into this itsy bitsy dress. Amazingly (thank goodness) there was more to the dress than it first appeared and it did actually fit.

After trying on no less than twenty outfits, I finally passed inspection with the fashion coordinators and it was on to deciding accessories and shoes. The guy in charge of telling me what kind of shoes to wear was everything that you would imagine a man in charge of shoes being! But, I could handle my first shoe assignment. Brown strappy sandals - check. He was horrified however to learn that I don't own gold stiletto sandals. After much whispering and consulting with the other fashion coordinators, it was agreed that he would select a new pair of gold shoes for me to wear in the fashion show. However, on the day of the show he actually deemed the pair of shoes I had brought as a back up acceptable and I was able to avoid teetering down the runaway in gold heels. Score one for Ally!

I had a wonderful cheering section during the show - my dear hubby, my sister and B-I-L, and my oldest Abilene friends Tiffany and Jenny (well, not the oldest, maybe the better word is longest - we've been friends since I was two!). It was so fun to see them in the front row from the catwalk. Thanks for cheering me on!