Wife vs. Husband

For the past 10 years my grandma, mom, two sisters, and I have started travelling together every summer. We have affectionately coined our summer travels as "The Girl Trip." Well, since we haven't gone on The Girl Trip since 2009 due to my wedding and, a year later, my sister's, I haven't left Kyle alone since we married. He on the other hand has been to a bagillion bachelor parties and a handful of weekends at the deer lease, so I am no stranger to "Kyle-free" weekends. (I'm a self-proclaimed loner, so "Kyle-free" isn't necessarily a bad thing).

Naturally, the girls and I are so excited to travel together again, but I have noticed several extra items appear on my "take care of this before you leave" list that weren't there pre-July 10, 2010.

What is Kyle going to eat while I am gone?

What groceries will he need?

Will he remember to make the coffee?

Will Bailey be okay?

Does Kyle have enough clean clothes?

Will he remember to take out the trash?

Does Kyle remember to not delete Dance Moms: Miami?

Obviously these are things that I don't need to worry about. Kyle isn't helpless or anything, but still, I'm a control freak caring wife.

My husband's thoughts before he goes out of town... "bye, I'll call you when I land."

Training for a Triathlon

No, I am not training for a triathlon, but Kyle is in full fledged training mode. I'm not really sure when this whim hit him, but let me tell you, it came full force. This doesn't really surprise me about Kyle. (Maybe he is channeling his previous life as a race walker). He is very passionate towards anything he does, yet I wasn't the most encouraging of his new undertaking.


Scene: Kyle is researching information about triathlons on the computer. Allie sits nearby playing on her phone. Bailey snores in the background.

Kyle: Hey Al, I think I am going to do this sprint triathlon in August.

Allie: Oh, really? That sounds fun.

Kyle: Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

Allie: Yeah, uh huh.

Bailey: zzzzzzzzzzzzZZZZZZ!

Kyle: And then, blah, blah, blah....

Allie: Yep, sounds neat.

Kyle starts the whole swimming and running thing, but he doesn't have a bike. In my mind the triathlon thing is about to fizzle out. Well, Kyle comes home last Friday, and he seems a little more eager to go to dinner. Being that I eat lunch at 10:30, I'm always ready to eat. Typically I have to force Kyle out the door for an early dinner, but this particular night he was ready to go!

Allie: Where do you want to eat?

Kyle: I don't care.

Allie: Let's just go eat at Ruggles and then we can go buy that suitcase that I wanted.

Kyle: Great! Then, we can go buy my bike!

Allie: Seriously?

At this point, whatever. I get it. He wants to try this. No big deal. Let's go get this bike.

Scene: Allie and Kyle go pick out a road bike that in no way fits in to the budget. Allie is fairly supportive, and Kyle is ecstatic! The two return home... Kyle riding a bike through the front door and Allie rolling a suitcase behind him. All seems well until...

Kyle: Al, come check it out!

Allie: Oh no!!! That is not staying in the bedroom!!

Kyle: Where else am I going to keep it?

Allie: This is so stupid!! Why did you buy this bike?

Kyle: What are you talking about?

Allie: We have no where to keep a bike in this apartment!

Kyle: Why are you saying this now?

Allie: I didn't realize that we were going to have to keep this in our bedroom!!

Oh the joys of living in an apartment... mixed with an exhausted, crazy wife. No need to fear. We fixed the problem. Kyle called the apartment office and told them we would need a storage unit. This was to be a great solution to the bike in the bedroom situation.

Well, let's just say it's not as much of a storage unit as it is a mere sliver of a closet.

Smallest storage unit I've ever seen! But, a happy wife is a happy life. :)

Nevertheless, Kyle has enjoyed his rides to Brays Bayou, and while he's off riding, I enjoy dreaming of my looming summer vacation!

Kyle's 27th

   

Silly b-day poster I made for Kyle

         Kyle's birthday is on May 6th and his brother's is on April 26th. It seems that it is easier to get the family together to celebrate both birthdays at one time, so this year, we started Kyle's birthday celebration 9 days before his actual birthday. Now Kyle could care less if we actually celebrate his birthday, but to me, birthdays are a big deal. Growing up, my mom would make us stay upstairs the night before our birthday so that she and the rest of our family could decorate the breakfast table with elaborate birthday decorations and gifts. It was so exciting to anticipate coming down stairs the next morning to see how the table would be decorated. So, if Kyle likes it or not, birthdays will always be a big deal to me!

Here are a few snapshots of Kyle's 27th b-day week!

     This year was a little bit different because Kyle was going to be coming home from a bachelor party on his birthday. Since he left on Thursday afternoon and I wouldn't see him until 8:30 p.m. on his birthday, I wanted to make sure that his birthday week was special! Like I said, we started 9 days before May 6th with a yummy dinner at one of our favorite College Station restaurants, La Bodega. It was a great time to catch up with Kyle's family, have delicious food, great cocktails, and my favorite- a strawberry tart!

La Bodega

     I had been wanting to take Kyle to breakfast at Rio Ranch since we moved back to Houston after college. There is nothing super wonderful about eating here, but I have so many memories of eating there after church when I was little that I had to take Kyle there at least one time. So, last Sunday after church, we headed over to Rio Ranch for a little birthday brunch. Kyle still hadn't opened his cards from his parents the few nights before, so we decided to bring them in to the restaurant. Every time the waiter would refill our coffee, Kyle would open one of his birthday cards. We had such a fun time talking over coffee (and a lot of food), and it will always be such a special memory for me.

Only picture from Rio Ranch. Horrible pic!

     This wasn't apart of the birthday plan, but on Tuesday, Kyle found out that he had passed his last exam for a certain designation he was working on for work. This was a huge deal as the test are extremely hard, so we decided to head out for a celebratory dinner. We enjoyed a long, relaxing dinner on the patio at Daily Review Cafe. I'm so glad the test results came during his birthday week because it made it all the better!

Dinner at Daily Review

     But most of all, my favorite birthday moment of the week came on Kyle's actual birthday. I of course wanted this to be the best day, and I had planned a surprise for Kyle. We are going to New York this summer, and Kyle is a Sopranos fan. There is a tour company that takes you to landmark sites from the t.v. show, and Kyle was very interested in going. I had been feeding Kyle lines about us not having enough time, how I had never seen the show, and that I just plain wasn't going to do it! Well, all the while I was planning on doing it. This will be fifth time to New York, so I am willing to do whatever Kyle is interested in doing. So, back to the birthday. I picked Kyle up at the airport at 8:30 p.m. He was fairly grumpy as he had been on a plane all day... on his birthday. I was trying to keep him in a good mood since I knew I had a surprise waiting for him at home. Upon arriving at our apartment, Kyle walked in to the Sopranos Season 1 playing on the t.v. and a giant "Admit One" ticket to the Sopranos tour in New York. He was so surprised and excited, and thankfully, his bad mood wore off. To top it off, we used our china and Waterford for the first time and ate Italian food in honor of Tony Soprano.

Sopranos surprise!

Sopranos surprise!

     Kyle, you are the best! I love you more and more everyday! I'm so glad I decided to "Smile with Kyle"... still smilin'!