AVA JAMES DIAS IS HERE!

On September 29, 2009 at 7:16PM, Ava James Dias was born in Austin, Texas. Mama Dani is doing great and Daddy Weston is updating the world with his twitpics :) She is 6 pounds 11 oz and cute as can be. Dani did beautifully, she went in for a checkup yesterday and the doctors told her that she was in labor...Ava wasn't supposed to arrive for 3 more weeks. I think she sensed that mommy was uncomfortably pregnant and wanted to give her a break :)

I can't wait to see this precious miracle on Friday! And I get to see Lil Liv tomorrow! I love being Aunt Laura...I promise to always have gum.

love/miss/namaste.

faux (dread)locks

after hitting my morning blogs / inspirational sites, i saw a little snippet on how-to faux dread locks. i think that some dreds look kind of awesome...so i was really curious. i tried to do twist dreds once in high school and people made fun of me. but since i woke up at 8, took a shower and was in my cube by 8:35, i decided to give it a try when i was home for lunch (since my hair looked a mess anyways). i am an adult now and can take peer ridicule a bit more gracefully since graduating HS and college.

kristy did not likey at first...but i think it's because dreadlocks have a negative connotation to her...but i promised i'd start calling them "my twists" and they are growing on her. friend poll: yes or no?

honestly...i will probably continue to do "my twists" regardless of the poll. because i like them.

also, check out those rosy lips...CC and i are rocking the lipstick today and we are sassy.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO MY DARLING AUSSIE SHIVONNE, I LOVE YOU AND MISS YOU TERRIBLY!

love/miss/namaste.

moving time = Laura's crazy comes out

kristy and i are moving in 2 weeks (squeal!) and we've got to start planning our home decor. so, of course my little brain has been churning with ideas on how to arrange our new CONDO. in the living area, the large wall is beautiful exposed red brick and the floors are wood. so to give my roommate a glimpse into what my vision is for this room, i made this little inspiration board. tell me what you think:

we've already got a couch and a love seat (both black - grr, but we'll make do). i have big plans to paint a few things yellow, recover a couple wing-backed chairs and throw pillows in new fabrics and purchase a sweet accent rug. but rugs are frickin expensive. anyone have any ideas?

anthropologie has some LOVELY ones (click it to see), but i'd rather not spend the equivalent of one month's rent on a rug (insert irritated foot-stomp). perhaps if everything else i use is DIY...

not many people i know LOVE moving. especially not as much as i do...after moving 7 times in the last 5 years.

on a more personal note...there is nothing new to report with me. my daddy is doing great, he had his first cardiac rehab appointment yesterday. he said it was him + a ton of oldies headed straight for the grave...he felt bad. he hopped on that treadmill and cranked it up and all the nurses were literally in shock. he's an iron man. i'm not lying.

i'm excited to go to austin for the 3rd week in a row on friday! hook 'em horns. revenge is ours.

next post will be dedicated to dani & ava's SHOWER of love! it was SO beautiful :)

love/miss/namaste.

oh no she didn't...!

yes. yes i did. i got my tattoo.

bethany, joshulyn and kristy accompanied me for moral support as i experienced this milestone in my life. it. was. awesome.

and for those of you who wanted to be there (i wish you could have been!), here is the extensive documentation:

when we first walked in, i gave my camera to joshulyn and my iphone to bethany. erik (the tattoo artist) was very confused by us.

joshulyn begins clicking photos of me...as soon as we walked in the door.

erik: "what's with the camera? is she going to be doing that... the whole time?"

me: "probably. as if the tattoo isn't proof enough that i actually got one, we need to document the experience just to be thorough."

here i am in the big chair! notice that i am smiling...it didn't hurt HALF as bad as i thought it would. honestly, the anticipation was the worst part. the tattoo took a little over 30 minutes, but it was a breeze. i'm usually a big wimp...but it was NOT painful. now, on the top of your foot or your wrist, i can see why that would be not so comfortable.

totally pumped.

i knew i've always wanted a lily as my tattoo, ever since i went off to college. as stated before, i love how lilies are used in the bible to describe beauty and illustrate how the Lord always provides. i found a few images of lilies online that i used for inspiration and then sketched this little 3-flower cluster design, which erik then spruced up just a bit. i'm so happy with it.

here is the tat happening in real life.

(gotta love that new iphone 3GS).

the final product...

this is me the next morning at work. doesn't it look totally normal? i mean, there was no skin irritation, it wasn't at all gross the next day and it was only a little sore. it felt like a sunburn on top of a bruise. now, it's healed beautifully :) and to be honest, it's in the perfect location for me. it's completely visible when i want it to be and when i need to cover it up, i just wear...clothes. my mom is kind of (really) pissed about how i'll look in a dress on my wedding day...but i'm kind of (really) stoked about it.

oh yea...and for the record, my dad had his (minor) heart attack before he found out about it. my parents are at peace with it because they are amazing and love me (for some crazy reason). that is also why i waited to post about it until i told them. my dad came home from the 'pital this morning and he's doing great, just tired. he hasn't gotten a good night's sleep in a few days. being in the ICU is like trying to sleep in a vegas casino...so much beeping. he's more or less back to normal now! seriously, God is good. so good.

so that's it!

love/miss/namaste.

so...this week has been abnormal.

i received a panicked phone call from my mom on monday as i was walking out the door to go to lunch. she told me that she needed me to meet her at arlington memorial hospital immediately...because my dad was there. all she knew was that he was having heart trouble and after having both grandfathers pass away from heart attacks, i was thoroughly freaked out. my amazing roomie (and coworker), kristy, drove me to the hospital just to be safe. i got to the cardiac intensive care unit and found my dad's room, my mom was already there. he was in the bed, hooked up to all sorts of machines. he smiled at me when i walked in and held his hand out to me, i took it and proceeded to cry just because i was so relieved to see him well. so here's what happened, according to my daddy:

he had just finished working out, as he usually does every day. when he was stretching, he felt a really intense pain in his chest along with nausea like he'd never felt before. he didn't want to go anywhere all sweaty and gross, so he took a shower (he says you can't go to the ER with dirty underwear). thinking that the pain was very unusual, he drove himself to the hospital. once he parked, he waited for a few minutes because the pain began to lessen and he thought it would be silly to waste people's time on a simple case of heartburn. but luckily, he went in anyway. as soon as he said the words "chest pain", he was whisked away in a wheelchair for an EKG, which revealed some trouble. he said that after the 2nd EKG, everyone was in full force, swarming and scrambling around him like all the doctor shows you see on TV. they told him that he had either just had a mild heart attack or he was about to, so they went to work on the blockages. he had 2, so they put in 2 stints up through his groin. no surgery, which was great. by the time my mom and i arrived, the whole ordeal was over and he was fixed up. we later found out (this morning) that it was indeed a heart attack but there was no permanent damage, which means that he'll be able to be back in the cockpit in about 6 months. he'll have to do cardiac rehabilitation for the next 6 weeks (which will probably be a joke since he works out every day and is in incredible shape), but he is good to go.

it's so strange, though. my dad is one of the healthiest people i know: he exercises every single day, eats pretty healthy and is really active...low blood pressure, low cholesterol...this whole thing is attributed to family history. it was so odd being in that intensive care unit, seeing all the other patients who were extremely old, decrepit, immobile. my dad didn't belong there. older, more sickly people have heart attacks. not fred.

but i guess that's the difference with my dad. after he has a heart attack, he's just hanging out in the room, cracking jokes, walking around the unit asking for pudding and listening to music to drown out the incessant beeping of all the monitors. he really is amazing. he actually felt BAD about inconveniencing people.... what a kook.

we are so lucky that he was at home when this whole mess happened and not on a trip or in the air. God was really looking out for him (and my mom and me) on this one. we're really excited that he gets to come home tomorrow. thanks to everyone who was and is praying for him and my family this week. we really appreciate all the support and love and feel so blessed to have amazing people to lean on.

oh yea...and the hospital was the first time i saw my parents after getting my tattoo, which they found out about after a while. not exactly how i wanted that to go down...but what can you do?

love/miss/namaste.