Tuesday night Andrea & I started watching Second Hand Lion. We watched more of it last night and plan to finish it tonight. This is the cutest movie! It really hits home on some words of wisdom the old man says throughout the movie. I think it's a great movie and before this I saw it at Blockbuster and passed over it every time....

Last night I went for a swim at Andrea's after work. She and Ted have the most awesome house. I am guessing it was built in the early 80's and it's one story and about 3500 sq feet. It's a huge house. Everything is big in this house. Their glass shower is 3 times that of what they put in standard homes today, their jacuzzi tub is 3 times bigger (seriously - Andrea, Lisa and I all took a bath together last year and it was very comfortable. The ceilings in the family room are cathedral and so high and they have a huge fireplace that is open to their living room and dining room and their pool is huge! It gets to about 12+ feet deep and their yard is huge with huge trees and different levels and they have a diving board and Andrea just got her "resort" furniture - that's what we call it anyway. So last night when I was swimming after a long shitty day at work I thought about how cool their house is. They really have done a lot of work updating it too. Their bedroom was repainted, they recarpeted the whole house and put huge square tiles in their dining, living and front entry. They have a parquet room with a treadmill and eliptical machine and a tv hung from the ceiling and weights.. they just had that repainted too and Andrea is having her closet repainted and having hard wood put into it. I saw that house from when Andrea and Ted first married and it was nice but it needed some work. It looks so nice now. Ever since Andrea started working with Ted at his business the business turned around and is doing incredible and they are able to spend money on the house. Anyway.....

I finally heard back from my boss after numerous attempts to find out if he needed me in Dallas next week. What a jerk.. didn't answer my 2 calls - I left 2 voicemails and 2 emails. FINALLY I hear back from him this AM. RML wants to come into town tonight because he has a customer meeting with Allendork here in Dallas for tomorrow. I actually would prefer that he come in tomorrow morning. I just don't want to stay at a hotel and want to spend another night with Andrea... I know that is selfish of me though... I just don't want to pack my bags for a night at a hotel when I have everything I need at Andrea's.

Andrea and Ted went to Ted's brother's Lake House up in the Ozarks last weekend. Ted's brother Tom (Tom, Ted and Bob --- these are their names: Bob's name is B-O-B - not Robert - Tom is just T-O-M - not Thomas and Ted... he isn't Theodore...he's just T-E-D.. I don't know why but I think that is funny!) Anyway, Tom is Lisa's fiances' Dad. Lisa will sortof be related to Andrea.. sortof...by marriage. Anyway, Lisa has always been very insecure and she always wants to be limelighted. The last time Lisa was in town Bob was in town so we all met up for drinks one night and she told me how much she liked Bob and was happy for me, blah blah blah. Andrea and Ted have gotten to know Bob quite a bit since we started dating. Andrea and Ted think he's great and good for me and that we are good together--- mind you, this is their honest opinion and they do tell me when they DON'T think someone is so great. I guess over the past weekend Lisa was talking to Andrea and she asked her what she thought of Bob and Andrea said she liked him and Lisa said "really?" and Andrea said "Yes, really. I think he's great and he and Amber are so happy together." Now because I know Lisa quite well I know what she was trying to do. She was trying to get Andrea to say she didn't like Bob so she could be in cahoots with her and have a secret from me... now don't get me wrong, I love Lisa like a sister, sister's don't always get along though. I have learned throughout the years that if you want a secret made known just tell Lisa and you won't have to even open your mouth because that girl IS the Mouth of the South -- well Mid America now... anyway... she is very jealous of mine and Andrea's friendship and always has been. I really don't get that but whatever. I had a friend that was like that in High School. Lisa also always conforms to whatever group she is with. Right now she is trying to be "wife material". I guess she feels she needs to prove to herself that she really wants to get married and be Brian's wife. Brian is a loser - he's into drugs(not weed, but hard stuff-scary stuff), he works for his Daddy (hence, he's never had a "real" job) Prior to working for Daddy, he worked for Uncle Ted who was sick of his poor performance but couldn't fire family. Andrea and Ted's business has had rapid success since Brian quit and went to work for his Daddy. They didn't even have to replace him because he wasnt' doing shit to begin with. Anyway, back to Lisa... apparently the entire weekend she was drunker than a skunk -- every night. In fact, the last time she was in town she wrecked havoc over at Andrea's one night and managed to open 3 expensive bottles of wine and drove around with Andrea's little step sister at 3AM looking for cigarettes, driving drunk. At what age do you quit acting like you are 21 again and it's the first time you are so "Stoked" that you are able to drink legally? She's turning 32 this October, as well as Andrea. There is such a huge difference in maturity it isn't even remotely funny. I'm 4 years younger than Lisa and while I don't want to toot my own horn but "beep beep" I am more mature than Lisa is and I actually know who I am and don't feel the insecurity to conform to fit the crowd. I am myself.. I may be quieter around some but I don't try to act like a country girl with the Texans, a snob around the Dallasites and wifey-material around someone's parents and pretend that I am a good church going motherly person and then turn around and pass out from being so drunk at every function. She is also so jealous of me right now because I lost all the weight and have maintained. She was so frickin' happy when I was fat. I know that girl all too well. Andrea, on the other hand, always told me she knew I could get back to the size I wanted if I just put my effort into it and got serious about my life. She was part of my inspiration to take a look at myself and realize all that I didn't like and change it. You go girl! You're the best!

I guess I am feeling very sentimental about leaving Dallas because I am going to miss Andrea. OH MY GOSH! Andrea has a dog named puppy, he's a toy poodle with redish hair, she has a tabby cat named kitty, another bigger tabby cat named Mr. Big and just adopted a blind dog and named her Stevie... Puppy just got groomed and it is so funny to see him from the day before he was groomed when his hair was all scraggly and long to the next day when he had a little blue bow in his bangs, his ears look like pigtails and his tail a little fluff and nice short shaved hair on his body. He actually PRANCES around now.. the day before he was acting like Eyore (it's not much of a tail but I'm kindof attached to it...) Stevie is really funny... she's starting to learn where everything is in the house and she walks very careful and actually knows when to go left or right to avoid walking into a chair or table leg... she's so cute. Yesterday she walked into the pool when Andrea was trying to wash the mud off puppy in the pool. She just walks right in. Stevie does still run into things and it's sortof funny, but she's very cute - white and fluffy. She's a poodle mix. Kitty and Big? Well, they are just strange cats that think they are dogs. Big brings snakes to the door.. EEK! "here Mom, a present!"

One of my favorite quotes from Steel Magnolias because it's the truth:

"Laughter through tears is my favorite emotion."