SAFUN

My cousin, Renee, a senior at O’Connor high school played for the varsity volleyball team this past season. They beat Reagan, making them number 1 in the city.  They made it to the final four for the 5A State Championship, beating a team from the valley. They went up against Austin Westlakes, a team that had won the IV-5A title the past 2 years. This was new for O’Connor and I am so happy Renee had the opportunity to make it that far. It will be an experience she will never forget. She is #5 on the far right. Go Renee! Read the full article here.

Jason and I typically hang low for Halloween. We enjoy hanging out with my family and watching my nieces and nephews dress up in their cute outfits. This year, since it fell on a Saturday, I figured we’d go up to Austin and visit my brother and his wife. Their friends were having a costume party so we went ahead and did the costume thing. Star Trek it was. We made our own outfits and I didn’t even have to buy anything! Jason made the cool Star Trek logos out of foam paper and we just got him some ears and a gun. My brother did an excellent job as Billy Mays (video below) and Layla did the Jessica Simpson look. There were actually some pretty creative costumes at Sean and Sarah’s party, who were Kayne West and Rhianna. My favorite? YouTube!

See all photos here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/safun/sets/72157622714512654/

My brother finally married his high school sweetheart! Well, they were “just friends” in high school but I think everyone had a feeling they would end up together in the long run. They married on September 12^th – which is the date they became boyfriend and girlfriend. My brother proposed Labor Day weekend at the beach in front of all their family and friends.

My parents hosted a fun rehearsal dinner at Acenar and as favors, they had beach towels embroidered with Layla & Wayne’s name & wedding date. I was in charge of making a slide show with photos of them. I added some video footage for a surprise. Tears filled the room which let me know it was a success.

They married at the historic San Fernando Cathedral, had the bridesmaids & décor pretty in pink, had the reception catered by local favorite True Flavors and had a rockin’ band out of Austin, Texas (where they reside now).  We love Layla and are so happy to have her join our family. She is definitely a girly girl and if it were possible, she would have been born with a wedding veil atop her head. We were all so nervous because we wanted the wedding to go as she planned. I think it did and if it didn’t, she didn’t notice

Check out more photos here.

Download the Slide Show here.

Once again, I am awakened by our barking dogs. Our bed is positioned right next to the window facing the street. We have a corner house so our dogs have a whole side view of what’s going on in the street. They are great guard dogs but sometimes you can do without the barking when it’s just a rolling plastic bag they are barking at.

Early this morning, our dogs were going crazy. I woke up and yelled at them to shut up! Well that woke up Jason. So now we were both up. In between the barking, you could hear this strange sound. Our dogs have killed a cat before (sorry to say) and so I was hoping it was not some injured animal. The sound was very frequent like a quacking duck. The dogs did not stop their barking. So Jason went outside with a flashlight to see what the heck was going on.

Turns out there is goose wobbling down our street. Jason comes inside and says “There is a goose on the street.” A goose? Seriously? So I had to go outside to see for sure (not that I didn’t believe him). It was dark so cars couldn’t see it. Jason was trying to get it to the sidewalk (like it knew the difference). Then when it saw that we were trying to help it, it chased us (or at least that’s what we thought). It almost came running inside our house. It just sat there in our yard. We called animal control and told them we had a goose in our frontyard. They first started laughing and then they gave us the number to Wildlife control. They didn’t answer. The goose laid in the yard the rest of the morning and when we were ready to go to work, it was not there anymore. We hope it is ok. We were thinking it might have been sick and just got disoriented. Who knows. But there was a goose and here is a clip to prove it.

Today was the “Walk with us to Cure Lupus” event at Brackenridge Park. My family had a team, Team SOL (Stomp Out Lupus), and we set a goal to raise $3000. My mom was the team captain and she got our team to raise $3688 as of today. The overall goal for San Antonio was $12,500 and we raised $22,656. Phenomenal! We are raising money for the Alliance for Lupus Research. Lupus is a disease that it difficult to diagnos and the medications to treat Lupus are very strong. We want to learn more about this disease so we can find better treatment methods as well as create awareness. We are doing this in memory of my Aunt RoseAnn who lost her life to Lupus at the age of 27 years. We also have members of our family on both sides that suffer from Lupus.

My Aunt Ruby helped put the event together and she did such an amazing job. We had such a great turn out. There was a balloon arch, Ronald McDonald appearance, drinks and snacks and a t-shirt contest. The weather was also perfect. It is so moving to see family and friends come together for a common purpose.

I really like Brackenridge park. It’s well kept and it is right in the heart of San Antonio. My only complaint? There are no recycling bins! We had tons of plastic bottles left over and the only option was a trash can. This is LAME San Antonio! So as a citizen of San Antonio, I am going to be contacting the San Antonio Parks and Recreation Department and inquire about putting recycling bins at Brackenridge. I will update you with my findings.