Ballin'

Near the end of the evening... fist pump!!

The boys

Symphony Ball was this weekend & man oh man did we have a great time! This year's theme was Rio de Janiero Carnaval, which meant lots of bright fun decor, jugglers, men on stilts, casino games, and samba music!

This year the ball had a casino area with a couple blackjack tables, craps, and roulette. As the night was coming to an end Chris & I had blown through nearly all of our chips so we decided to go "all in" on roulette. I walked up to the table, placed our last chip on "24" (because it's how old we are), and WON. It's 1/1000 odds. We were ecstatic (even though we didn't actually win anything but multiple drawing entries). So when they announced that it was "last call" at the casino tables I tried my hand at roulette once more... and WON! I have played roulette 2 times in my life (both on Saturday) and correctly guessed the number both times. I think it is safe to say that my gambling career peaked on Saturday, hince my official retirement.

Puppies!

My little Oxford is growing like a weed. He is 7 months old and weighs just as much as Ollie. He loves eat, chew on things he shouldn't, eat, bark at our neighbors, eat, eat, & eat... He is the only dog I know who will eat his pills like a treat.

Speaking of Oxford the poor little guy is a cripple. For the past couple of months he's had a limp. After a week or two of seeing him hobble around we took him to our wonderful vet (a.k.a. Dr. Dad) to get an x-ray. We were very worried that he had elbow dyspepsia, but after a couple different x-rays & expert opinions we were overjoyed to find out that there are no issues with his joints. However, we do have mildly crippled 7 month old golden retriever who has to take his meds twice a day. It breaks my heart to see him hurting, but I hope and pray that this is just "growing pains" and nothing life threatening or serious.

Although he is commonly referred to as "Hobbs" and limps around our house all day, he is a happy dog. He has the sweetest disposition & loves Chris, Ollie, & I so much. I love our little "Clarence puppy" & can't imagine our life without him.

&&& I love my husband because he suprirised me with my little baby Ox on my 24th Birthday.

Real life update...

I very seldom discuss our "real life" issues on here, so I thought I would take a moment and discuss where we are at right now.

Chris is 1/2 way through law school! Hallelujah! Rejoice! Amen! If this next year and a half go by as quickly as the first we are definitely on the downhill slope. He now gets to pick his courses and really enjoys all of his business courses, especially bankruptcy. He was also given the opportunity to participate in the SMU Tax Clinic. This is a group of about 10 students who do pro-bono tax law for locals. It's pretty neat because he is getting to practice law & he doesn't technically have his JD (He had to apply for a temporary bar license)

In addition to school Chris is still working part time at HKB here in Dallas. He absolutely loves his coworkers and is so blessed to have such a positive work environment. If you had told me 2 years ago that working for the Strong Arm would be such a blessing in our life I would have cringed. After the first 2 semesters and a let down from Underwood we both realized that sometimes life doesn't always turn out how you want or even how you like, but it will be ok. When God closes a door he opens a window. Cliche, I know, but for us it is so true. I sometimes wonder if I would take our good fortune for granted had Chris dominated his first 2 semesters, gotten an internship at a big law firm, and stepped into a $200,000 a year job right out of law school? Or would I have the mindset that I deserved it?

As for me.... my company merged. Butler Animal Health Supply & Henry Schien merged to form Butler Schein. Yes, I work for But Schein. Work for me is the same ole same ole. Just trying to survive this merger.

&&& I love my husband because.... he mad a 3.5 this semester.

Hello Dean's list!

Haircut(e)?

I got my hair did yesterday... which is something I usually enjoy. I always LOVE the way that the professionals fix my hair and even plan my appointments around special events. That is until recently... The last 3 times I've gotten my hair cut I left the salon unhappy. I don't know whether it's my exhaustion, bad hair style, or just being irritable, but I have had an awful experience with haircuts.

Everything was fine until the dreaded bang trim. Once she started blow drying my bangs to the wrong side I knew I was in for disappointment. When she finally swept them to my correct side all they wanted to do was part down the middle and look greasy (my pet peeveeee). After 20 minutes of trimming, spraying, wetting, and drying they looked no better. I gave up, pulled them back with a bobbi pin and went on my merry way.

This was after I rewashed my bangs and fixed them myself... MUCH better!

Invasion of the Joneses

For the first time since I can remember the ENTIRE Jones clan (all 10 of us) were able to get together in Dallas. The Amarillo bunch flew in around 1 on Saturday while Mitch's clan drove in from Azle a little later in the afternoon.

The mission: To find the perfect Symphony Ball dress. We hit the ground running the moment we left the airport. We shopped for 4 full hours on Saturday and I found nothing that I loved. I was bummed. After church on Sunday we went out again with high hopes. After trying on an awesome Betsey Johnson dress at Nordstrom's it hit me... We HAD to go to the Betsey Johnson store. Victory! Liz & I both found the perfect dresses at BJ. We tried on about 15 each (all of which were awesome) and narrowed it down to our faves.

Other than our dress mission we managed to get some quality time with the whole fam. at Hector's, play hours of Beatles Rockband with Liz & Eric, and love on our sweet little nephews. &&& I love my husband because... he has such an awesome family. I can't imagine a more perfect fit for my in-laws!

Teaser, Pleaser, Take it away...

Whitney came up from Tulsa this weekend for a much needed visit. Whitney's other good friend from college, Jessica, also lives in Dallas and is getting married in a couple weeks, so we made it a bachelorette weekend. In the end there were 9 girls! The more the merrier.

We spent Friday night in, ordered pizza, ate cupcakes, drank wine, and watched a movie. My idea of an awesome Friday night. Saturday we shopped till we dropped. We were up and out by 10 and shopped till 4 in the afternoon. We hit Nordstroms Rack, Sacks off 5th, and of course Northpark.

Saturday night is where the real fun went down... Pole dancing class. Yes, Pole Dancing class. We had a private lesson at "The Girls Room" on Greenville. I was very skeptical... very skeptical, but it turned out to be one of the most fun experiences.... and it wasn't even awkward.

The key phrase that "every pole dancer lives by" .

TEASER.PLEASER.TAKE IT AWAY

&&& I love my husband because... he though it was humorous that I took this class...

10 years ago..

Chris and I celebrated our 2 year anniversary last week, which left me reflecting back on our years spent together. It's weird to think that we met and began dating 10 years ago.... 10 years!! Because of our history we got to experience so much of our lives together.

We got to go to prom (2 times!), football banquet, social, high school gradutation, & college graduation ALL TOGETHER. We moved off to college together. We experienced life in the dorms together... We had crazy odd roomates whom we were determined were destined to be together (my roomate dissed his btw). We moved into the sorority/fraternity house at the same time & experienced live with multiple roomates together. We took college algebra & speech together. We sat side by side at our college graduation. We sat in our first apartment and applied for law school/real world jobs together.

We he had our ups...

And we had our downs...

But it all comes down to the simple fact that I am deeply in love with my husband... always have been always will be. He is my other half & without him I would be incomplete.

Chris & Shan 2003 Chris & Shan 2009

&&& I love my husband because... He has put up with me for TEN YEARS!! & I know that wasn't always easy :)