Best intentions

Yes, we had the best intentions when we decided to start a blog to keep everyone updated on our lives. However, despite Nick's way with words and my decent attempts at writing (or journaling, rather), we cannot, between the two of us, seem to keep up with it. So, since the last post a whopping 3 months ago, the following has happened:
1. I turned 30 and celebrated with a very fun 1920s-theme party.
2. Two days after my party, Nick and I went to Las Vegas for nearly a week. It was part work, part fun. I worked my first tradeshow with Nick for ecommission (Nick's "day" job, which allowed us to travel on the cheap). It was fun the first day but slow the next two. However, I discovered that I am good at manning (womanning?) a trade show booth! The end of the week was spent at the penny slots, and we had Addey's dear friend Beth, a Las Vegas resident, to drive us around. She took us to a brand new casino hotel, M, which was only six days old. We felt quite fancy! It was hard to return to the real world after that.
3. Fast forward to April. Our friends threw their annual crawfish boil, and it was crazy crowded. Their goal has been to make it a public event, so this year there were reportedly 550 people in attendance at this backyard party. I'm just glad I had a folding chair and the shade of a large tree.
4. The day following the crawfish boil brought us the Wienerdog Races in Buda, TX, to which we took Penelope and Finnegan. This was heir first big outing, and they were very anxious. We met up with our friends Mike and Megan, who had entered three items into the County Bakeoff. We also met up with my friend Christy, her husband Joe, baby Jude, and their dachshund Liam. It really was a family affair when Addey and Mom joined us later. Mom was definitely in dog heaven.
5. The night after the races, I got sick and felt terrible for an entire week. My illness came right at the start of the swine flu panic. Of course Dad thought I surely had the virus and would keel over from it, but it was just a bad head cold.

So here we are in the month of May, with time passing by too quickly but lots of things too look forward to. The end of the school year is rapidly approaching, and I'm definitely looking forward to it. Starting in June, I will have four weeks of summer camp at work, followed by four weeks of vacation (yea!). At the end of this month is Jenn's baby shower, and Nick's family is coming in from California for it. We are both looking forward to their visit.
The real estate brokerage is slow right now. Nick will soon add a real estate agent to his company, and hopefully business will pick up this summer. Regardless, it will be an exciting summer as we await the arrival of our nephew Brody Michael Lateur! And soon after that Nick plans to participate in a sprint triathlon on Labor Day. He has started training for it, so we'll see how that goes.

It's 2009? Where did the time go?

I have neglected the Lateur Chronicles blog. I admit it. You can accuse me of being lazy (you wouldn't be the first), but I have a really good excuse. I have been feverishly working to start up my Real Estate Company, Lateur Realty. As of January 2009, Lateur Realty is open for business!! I am excited and optimistic. I realize the economy is in the crapper, but the way I see it, if you start out at zero, your business can only increase.... And my plan is to grow exponentially....

Probably the MOST important recent event in our lives was the announcement that out sister-in-law Jenn is pregnant!! We know Mike is going to be a proud poppa, and Jenn is super excited as well. Amara and I are ecstatic. I cannot wait to be ol' Uncle Nick. And having Grandma Sally and Grandma Becky, this kid has a legitimate shot at being the most spoiled child on earth.

Other updates: Finnegan and Penelope are doing well. They are SO much bigger than the last time we posted. I call Penelope my "lil' rhino" because she is built like a tank. And Finnegan has grown up to be a wispy, long legged, snuggle puppy. We love them both so much. It seems like their only real flaw is that they are just too cute!

Our cat Earl is still chuggin' along. She will be 10 this summer. She spends her days sleeping and avoiding Finnegan and Penelope.

In closing, I promise to post more often, and keep you all up do date with the happenings of our family.

Much love to you all!

-Nick

Summer trip

I've been bugging Nick since the last post to write one of his own. After all, this blog is supposed to be aboout us. Clearly, he has not done it. His excuse is that he doesn't have anything to say (yes, this statement is coming from one of the most talkative and creative people I know).

So, last week we returned from a brief and frenzied trip to California to visit with Nick's family. We saw Chico State, where Nick's sister Amy goes to college, spent the night there, and then drove to Lake Tahoe. It was gorgeous there; the weather was perfect, and the lake was beautiful and sparkling at Zephyr Cove. We stayed the night, and the next morning we rode a gondola up a mountain (I don't know if it was called Adventure Peak or Heavenly something).

Nick and I are both not friendly with heights, so we did our best to not look directly below us from the gondola and observation deck. The views from the top of the mountain were amazing. Being up there reminded me of the summer camping trips to Colorado that I took with my family when I was growing up. Incidentally, I miss it there, and would love to take Nick to Crested Butte since he's never been.

Anyway, I would have liked to have spent much more time there, especially by the lake. It was nice and peaceful. We were happy to come back to our doggies though!

Family Reunion

Penelope and Finnegan met their sister today! My mom and sister have a dachshund puppy named Izzie; she's only about 8 months old, but she looks so much bigger than my pups. Penelope and Izzie share the same sire (daddy), and Finnegan and Izzie share the same dam (mommy). It's one big happy family! My mom's other dog, Gracie, is a larger dog, but she was great with the puppies. Izzie was a little too excited about meeting her siblings, but Gracie was very protective of the little ones and didn't let her get too close. Izzie isn't aware that she is so much bigger than Penelope and Finnegan; we'll all be glad when they grow a little more and won't be squashed by their spunky older sister.

I'm so tired from looking after the babies. It seems they sleep most while I'm awake, and then when I want to go to bed, they are ready to play again, or they cry in their crate when I am trying to fall asleep. They sound so sad, but I try really hard not to give in to their whimpering. I don't want them to think that I'll let them out every time they cry! I'm glad they have each other for company--I don't feel quite as bad crating them for a few hours. I'll be glad when the weekend comes and Nick will be home to help out a little more:)

What's Up, Dach?

Welcome! As any family with new "babies" would do, we decided to start a blog. Today, we became dog parents! We brought home 12-week-old Penelope and 8-week-old Finnegan, both dachshunds, from Brenham, TX to join our already happy little family. Earl does not appear to want to get acquainted with the new members of our family, but we're hoping that she'll grow to love them as much as we have in only one day! Amara is off of work for a month, so she'll stay home with the pups to get them used to the house and, hopefully, somewhat trained. So far, they've mostly been sleeping, and they seem to be getting quite comfortable with our sofa.
Penelope got a little car-sick on the way home, but she's doing better now. Finnegan has one blue eye, and he loves to have his belly scratched.
We promise that our subsequent posts will not all be about the doggies, but they are just too cute not to share the love!