catching up (again): part two

Happy "tomorrowish"! I'm continuing on the run-down of what we've been up to... this one has pictures!

May 8th - Joe officially turned 28. We got some errand-type things done (including Joe getting a new driver's license picture for the first time in ten years) and then headed to Houston. We spent the evening with some friends from college - Jennifer and James. Jennifer and I were roomies before we both got married, and she had their oldest, Emma, while I was still in school and got to spend a lot of time with them. I was sad that she wouldn't remember me, but despite that she was super-sweet (wanted to sit by me at dinner, told me she loved me). They've also had another kid, Andrew, who is only 10 months old. He was cute. I had a great time catching up. It's so nice to spend time with people you've lived with - there is just a different level of comfort and "making yourself at home" comes easy. Oh! She also remembered that Joe is allergic to cats and dogs (especially cats). I found out that she had steam-cleaned the carpet and couches the day before and kept the cats in the garage since then until after we left!!! People are almost always considerate of Joe's allergies, but I don't think I've never had someone go to THAT much trouble for him... it really meant a lot and I'm glad I got it out of her. :)

May 8th (night) - That night we stayed at a hotel (2.5 stars on Priceline for $35 - nice!). Look, Joe even got his own bed for his birthday! ;)

May 9th - We went to the new outlet mall in the Houston area - it's on our way to Joe's parent's house from CS, so we've been driving by while it was being built and were curious. It was okay - a lot of clothing stores and several athletic (Nike, New Balance, Adidas, etc.) stores. Not so many kitchen or home stores. It is more like a promenade (a mall that is open to the outdoors - NOT a strip center) than any other outlet I've been to, which made it nicer to walk. We took pictures with Buzz and Spidy.
We joined Joe's parents for dinner that night at Johnny Tamale's. We tried to convince Joe's sister (Emily) to come and took this picture to make her sorry she didn't (it's Joe's mom "having a good time").May 10th - We planned a surprise party for Emily - she's never had one before! While she was out looking at houses we got in and decorated. Here are some pictures....

how we decorated
an example of the posters we hung around the room
how we decorated the floor (confetti had been banned... this was Joe's idea)
Emily had to run through this to get in

the birthday "kids"

what happens when you tell Joe not to close his eyes in the next picture

May 11th - Happy Mom's Day! We went (for the first time) to the church Joe's parents recently started going to. It's the same type of church Joe grew up in (non-class church of Christ) and two of the other families Joe grew up with (but hadn't seen as much since their church disbanded) are going there. Then we came back to College Station!

May 12th week... Recovery and back to a busy work week for me! We've got an MD student who is during summer research in our lab and I'm in charge of her (teach her, give her stuff to do), so that just started on the 14th and will go all summer. She's nice, but that means I'm really busy.