Well in no particular order, here they are:

• Got engaged!
• Test drove new cars
• Bought a new car!
• Bought a wedding dress
• Planned and threw 2 baby showers
• Introduced my dad to my future in-laws
• Became a landlord (i.e., invested in a rental property)
• Successfully competed in Warrior Dash
• Found the only Alamo Drafthouse outside of Texas and watched a double feature
• Drove to New Jersey and back in less than 48 hours
• Saw a production of Disney’s Newsies at the Papermill Playhouse and met the cast at a local diner afterward
• Created a wedding website and registered for wedding gifts
• Got a promotion to Software Engineer II
• Learned how to play the awesome game of Dominion
• Planned a wedding (partially)
• Threw a Silpada party
• Got second place in a Biggest Loser contest at work
• Made a fall wreath
• Became addicted to Pinterest
• Went to Smith Mountain Lake
• Watched an elementary school production of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
• Attended the Top of the Hops Beer Festival, met up with an old college roommate, and met a famous blogger
• Had engagement photos taken by an awesome photographer
• Made my own t-shirts for Shamrockfest 2011, the 2011 Charlottesville Women’s Four Miler, and Breaking Dawn Part 1
• Went to a bridal show
• Participated in Office Olympics
• Got my concealed weapons permit
• Attended Scrum training by one of the inventors of Scrum
• Spent a wonderful long weekend in Disney World with my dad, step-mom, little brothers, and my fiance
• Had an AMAZING girls weekend in the Outer Banks
• Helped plan an engagement brunch for a friend
• Attended the 7th Annual Pink Ribbon Polo Classic at King Family Vineyards and met the owner who attended my alma mater
• Watched the Royal Wedding
• Crowd Surfed during the Dropkick Murphys performance at Shamrockfest
• Saw a real live bear
• Experienced my first earthquake…SCARY

I’m sure there are a ton of things that I’m leaving out and so many pictures and stories to go with all of these experiences, and one day I’ll hopefully get them all up here on the blog.

It’s been an AMAZING year so far and I’m hoping 2012 will be even better!

Hope your 2011 has been as great as mine!

I must be crazy because there’s no way I’ll every keep up with that many!

Recently, I’ve been helping my friend Sarah get ready for her wedding that is two weeks from tomorrow, but once things calm down some and the slow and relaxing air of autumn is here, I will share all of my adventures!

I’ve also been contemplating starting a new blog.  Don’t worry, that doesn’t mean that Texas Lou will be retired.  This blog will continue to be my personal blog.  But I’d like to start more of a professional blog dealing with a specific topic or project.  Deciding on that topic is the hard part, but I’ve been letting a few ideas marinate.

I hope everyone had an awesome 4th of July and a great long weekend!  Just 4 days until I get to go to the beach!

I think my hobby of blog following may be turning into an obsession!

I’ve been meaning to write about my friend Dana and her blog for a while, but I kept forgetting.  Well Dana just posted a new entry on her blog, Dana’s Garden, and with it being the first day of summer and all, I thought it might be the perfect time to share with yall!

Dana’s blogs combines two of my favorites things: blogging and gardening!  She has rented out a space in a community garden here in Charlottesville and built it from a pile of dirt and weeds into a beautiful and productive garden!  I wish I could do what Dana is doing, but I don’t have much of a green thumb and I think my self-determination is lacking too.  On top of working a full time job, being involved in softball and kickball leagues, and working part time as a Pampered Chef consultant (click here if you’re in need of some AMAZING kitchen utensils), Dana has managed to bring her garden to life with broccoli, peas, green beans, cilantro, bell peppers, jalapenos, zucchini, and much more!  Dana is the inspiration that I might just need to take a stab at my own garden next year!

You should definitely check out Dana’s blog, especially if you are in to gardening!  She’s also a photographer so she’s got some spectacular pictures of her progress in the garden!

Lucky for me, a great deal of those blogs are mostly comprised of pictures! 

Ada Lovelace Day is an international day of blogging to celebrate the achievements of women in technology and science.

This year, I am blogging about my friend Nita Collier.  Nita is one of the strongest, smartest, and most amazing women I know and she is one of the people who inspired me to further my career in technology.

I first met Nita when I was 22 and right out of college.  I was working my first real job as the Help Desk Associate for Albemarle County Schools and Nita was one of the Technology Support Specialists.  She was only 4 years older than me, but she had a husband, 2 beautiful children, a house, and a successful career supporting technology in education.  At first, the Help Desk work satisfied me, but soon I found myself wanting to learn and do more.  I saw what Nita and my other co-workers were doing and I wanted to do the same thing.  I wanted that challenge and even though it was scary to think of jumping into something that I was not confident about doing, I knew that I could do it because Nita did and I knew she could teach me alot.

Over the 3 years that I worked forAlbemarle County, I became good friends with Nita and learned sooooo much from her.  She taught me everything she could about the profession.  Now a mother of three beautiful little ones, Nita supports the entire division, consisting of more than 26 schools and sites, by helping teachers to integrate technology into education and providing a more engaging learning environment for the students of the 21st century.  She continues to inspire me to be all that I can be in technology.

It’s because of strong and intellegent women like Ada Lovelace and my friend, Nita Collier, that women like myself continue to enter and succeed in the technology field!

I love you Nita and thank you for everything!

Heather wrote about a website called foursquare where you can check-in to different places with your cell phone and earn badges and achievements for trying out new venues in the city where you reside.  I had no idea these types of social networking sites existed and now that I do, I am totally addicted.  I absolutely love this site and its agenda because I am always looking out for new places to visit and new restaurants or breweries to try!  Even though I’ve been living in Charlottesville for over four years now, it still seems that there are so many places I’ve never been to and never even heard about, and foursquare is opening my eyes to many of these locations.

The ease of checking-in with a smartphone or mobile web device is also motivating me to finally trade in my three and a half year old flip phone for something a little more technologically advanced especially since I’ve been craving a data plan and GPS but have been putting off the upgrade because of the extra money it costs.

A similar website, Gowalla, was also brought to my attention by my friend Danielle.  I haven’t played with this site as much yet, but I definitely plan on doing so, especially because the site is designed and developed in my own home sweet home, Texas!  Once I get a newer phone, being active on both of these sites will be alot easier and much more fun!

I definitely recommend giving both websites a try and make sure to add me as your friend!