Texas Lou

Archive for the ‘Holidays’ Category

I hope everyone had a merry Christmas!

I always get a little sad when I have to leave my family in Texas after Christmas and come back to work, but there was a little something waiting on my desk that brought the biggest smile to my face!

My friend Ashley MADE this Christmas ornament for me! I absolutely love it!

Thank you Ashley! Your gift will be cherished for many years to come!

Sorry for the lack of posts lately.  I’ve had blogger’s block (or writer’s block for the traditionalists out there).

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 promised a recap of my Memorial Day weekend and my cousin’s wedding so here it is:

The weekend can be summed up in one word:  SPECTACULAR!

Almost the entire family was able to make it to the wedding.  People came from Washington State,  Oklahoma, Texas, South Carolina, Virginia, and New Mexico.  I’d say we did our best at taking over Sherman, Texas for the weekend!

Besides having a ton of fun, doing alot of reminiscing, and making new memories that will last a lifetime, I think the most important thing that came out of the trip was the realization that I have the best family in the world and I absolutely love them.  As children, we were all very close, but I often worry that after all of the years of college, and jobs, and everyone moving farther apart to pursue different careers or life choices, we would slowly drift apart and lose that closeness that we all had.

This trip definitely stifled those worries because even as adults, we all still enjoy each other’s company and realize how important it is to maintain that closeness that many other families are not lucky enough to have.

And in no specific order, here are my favorite moments from the trip:

• Marc calling me to tell me that they were running late to pick Ben and I up from the airport and they would be there soon if they didn’t die first from the roach crawling around Megan’s car
• Eating REAL Tex-Mex food and drinking margaritas with Megan and Ben on a Thursday afternoon
• Watching the Hangover with the fam and repeating quotes like, “Tigers love pepper; they hate cinnamon” and “Toodaloo Motha Fuckas”
• Running on the treadmill with my sister in the hotel gym on Friday morning and keeping each other motivated for our half marathon in October
• Eating continental breakfast with the whole family in the hotel lobby every morning
• Watching the surprise slide show made by Bryan’s (the groom) dad 3 times and loving it more each time
• Getting to know some of my cousins as adults since the last time I saw them they were still kids
• Dancing with Ben for the first time in our almost-4-year-long relationship
• Visiting with friends and family at the rehearsal dinner and the wedding reception
• Introducing Ben to the whole fam damily and to Sherman, Texas!
• DANCING with the fam (particularly to Footloose – will always remember the suspender tricks)
• Giving a speech at the reception to honor my cousin and one of my best friends
• Catching the bouquet (even if my mom DID volley it to me)
• Meeting many of the little ones who have joined our family but I hadn’t had the opportunity to meet yet and watching them dance and play on the dance floor
• Saying “Shelby Drink Your Juice” in a country accent every time Megan started to tear up at the thought of no longer being a Mitchusson to keep her from messing up her make-up
• The sigh of relief I had when mom fixed the zipper on my bridesmaid dress and once again confirmed that she is my ultimate hero
• Walking down the stairs at the reception with the best man as we were introduced to the guests to the tune of the Black Eyed Peas’ “I Gotta Feeling”
• Partying at Cellarmans until midnight after the rehearsal dinner and then moving the party to the Holiday Inn Express gazebo until 2 AM the night before the wedding
• Getting my hair done with my mom, aunt, the bride, and the bridesmaids
• Getting pedicures and manicures with my mom, aunt, sister, and cousin
• Laughing the day after the wedding at the stories of dance moves involving the shocker
• Seeing Matt’s bee hives
• Dancing to “Girl’s Just Want To Have Fun” after “catching” the bouquet
• Watching my cousin get married in the same church my parents were married in almost 40 years ago

There are so many more great memories, but if I keep writing, you’d all get bored and stop reading!

And now, courtesy of Marc Mitchusson, a photo of the Scott Family great-grandaughters who attended the wedding and also some of my best friends in the whole world!

In honor of Cinco De Mayo, I present a very festive picture from my college days:

Hope you get to enjoy a margarita and some good Mexican food today!

Today is Ada Lovelace Day. 

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!

The San Antonio River Walk, the Astrodome, Tubing on the Guadalupe, Dell Computers, Dr. Pepper, the Dallas Cowboys, the Houston Comets, the rodeo, jalapeño pepper jelly, Whataburger, Howard Hughes, Buddy Holly, Tommy Lee Jones, Patrick Swayze, Texas Instruments, Steve Martin, Dennis and Randy Quaid, Luke and Owen Wilson, Forest Whitaker, Renee Zellweger, the Texas Longhorns, Fritos, Shiner Bock, the annual Fiesta festival in San Antonio, Space Center Houston, Janis Joplin, Destiny’s Child, Pat Green, Southwest Airlines, Pizza Hut, Valero, USAA,  Taco Cabana, Blue Bell Ice Cream, Austin City Limits, the Fort Worth Stockyards and Billy Bob’s, the University of Texas, the Houston Rockets, George Strait, NASA Mission Control, Six Flags Over Texas, Sea World San Antonio, Barton Springs, Sixth Street, South by Southwest, Lone Star Beer, Saint Arnold’s Brewery, the Kolache Factory, the Galleria, my family, AND ME!

If it weren’t for the Texas Declaration of Independence on March 2, 1836, none of the above would exist and the world would be a much less exciting place.

I’m proud to be a Texan!  What’s your favorite thing about Texas?

Friday, February 12th, I drove to Virginia Beach with three friends from work to compete in the Virginia is for Lovers 14K.

We were all a bit worried as the weather forecast was calling for a 90% chance of snow.  However, I consider us to be lucky that the race wasn’t canceled and the snow didn’t begin until halfway through the 8.68 mile run.

This race was part of our training for the Yuengling Shamrock Half Marathon that we are running in March.  All in all, the race went well.  Aside from the sideways snow and the 20 mph wind that started around the 5th mile, it was a fun race!

My stats were as follows:

After the race, we got to enjoy free Yuengling and burritos at the after party.  Despite the cold weather and snow, it was a pretty awesome experience and I can’t wait to do it again next year!

A couple of years ago, my mom moved from our big, ole house in the suburbs to a tiny townhouse in the city.  In the move, 3 very valuable objects were misplaced and the family mourned the loss of these beloved items.

Ok, so I’m not talking about the family dog or something worth a large chunk of money.  I’m talking about the 3 Christmas stockings that my mom made for my sister, brother, and I as babies.  We’ve hung these up every year at Christmas time and when they were misplaced, we were afraid we had lost them forever.  My stocking is one of my favorite things in the whole world.  As a matter of fact, if my house was burning down, and I could only save one non-living object from being destroyed, it would be a toss-up between my two blankies (My name is Leslie Elsaifi, I’m 27 years old, and YES, I still sleep with blankies) and the Christmas stocking.  My stocking is very near and dear to my heart partially because my mother made it for me with her own two hands and partially because it will always have a connection with Christmas memories which is always a very special and happy time for me and my family.

I also love mine because it says “Twas the Night Before Christmas” and I was born on Christmas Eve!  So needless to say, we were all jumping for joy when my mom stumbled across them back in November (just in time for Christmas) while looking for her punch bowl!

And without further ado, I present to you, the magnificent stockings made by Patsy Mitchusson: