Ty James Herrera

So within a few very short hours of my return home from North Carolina, I got a call from Deena that she was in labor at the hospital and about to get her epidural. Sean and I jumped in the car and headed out to San Diego, so that I could try when the baby arrived, but while we were driving on the 8 East right about Jacumba ... Ty James Herrera joined us on Saturday, August 16, 2008 at 2:46p.m.





Ty is just about the luckiest little boy in the world since his momma is one of the most amazing women to walk this Earth.

Congratulations Deena and Jesse!

a day in the life of my luggage

... from August 15th ...

So this week I made a 28-hour quick turn-around trip with Matt to North Carolina for some very important meetings. We had a great flight out, but unfortunately, my little one city stop wasn’t enough for my luggage. It decided … or rather the ticketing agent that mixed up my luggage tags decided … that it needed to go on a longer, more exciting voyage. However, neither my luggage nor the preoccupied ticketing agent felt it necessary to share their plans with me. So imagine my surprise when I arrive at RDU, wait for my bag for an hour, and then watch everybody else from my flight grab their belongings off the carousel and mine was nowhere to be found.

Before I finish this story, I have to tell you that considering the extensive and frequent traveling I do, I have counted myself very lucky at this point to have never have suffered any luggage trauma save some beat up bags. I digress.

So I look at Matt and tell him my bag isn’t there and now it is two newer flights on the carousel and without any words spoken, I make my way over to the Baggage Service counter.

Now for those of you that have known me a long time, you may have expected me to be livid and perhaps short or abrasive with the baggage agent. Perhaps, you even (as one of my officemates put it) expected me to have explained to them that they are idiots in the most intelligent and eloquent way possible, but I assure you I did neither of those things. I decided to be the nicest, most calm person I possibly knew how to be while still sneakily getting the agemt full name and badge number and documenting the exact time I spoke to them. Again I digress.

So it turns out that when I checked my bag at PHX, the ticketing agent mistagged my luggage with the person at the next kiosk’s baggage ticket. So my bag went to Tampa and Schultz, Sand’s bag ended up there in RDU. At least they knew where it was right? At least it wasn’t completely MIA. So the woman at the baggage service counter makes arrangement for my bag to return from Tampa on the last plane of the evening at 10:42 p.m. which meant my bag would be delivered to my hotel at 12:30a.m. Since this was a business trip and my suit was in that bag, I kindly request that they call me upon the bags arrival to both RDU and the hotel. The agent assured me that they handle all claims in that matter and that it wasn’t asking too much. So I kindly thank her for all her help andMatt and I leave to go pick up the rental car and head over to the hotel. So at 11:30 p.m. I get a sick feeling in my stomach and call the airline to check on my baggage. And well, to summarize the next three hours of madness. My bag went from Tampa to Philadelphia to Charlotte to RDU arriving late (of course) to the airport at at 1:14 a.m. and then finally to my hotel at nearly 2:30 in the morning. So I promptly took these reunion photos (because I am silly)…

… went to bed, and got in 2 ½ hours sleep before having to get up and go to my big meetings. Let’s just say today was sponsored by caffeine.

So now, I am typing this from the plane on the way back to the PHX after two seemingly very successful meetings. We are about an hour and half behind our course because we all got to sit on the plane for the aforementioned amount of time while the mechanic drained excess hydraulic fluid from one of the lines in the wing flaps. YAY us! I guess it could go with out saying (although I will) that this trip … although beneficial in the long run … was far from my favorite travel experience.

Although, to end of a high note and in my typical Bonnie silver lining fashion, I will say that it was exciting to come to North Carolina for the first time. The place is beautiful and I can’t wait to come back again and see a little bit more time in the gorgeous part of the country.

Oh heavens!

The summer skies of Arizona have delivered a special treat this week. Here are just a few of the pics from the night I got to my camera in time to attempt to capture it all.





I promise you the summer evening skies of Arizona are some of the most amazing sights I have ever witnessed. Wish you could be here to watch them with us.

Fried food and feet

This weekend held a few milestones. We are now at less than 100 days until I become Mrs. Brookshire, Sean managed to get the worst sunburn I think I have ever seen in my entire life on the tops of his feet, and I met my soon-to-be sister-in-law for the first time.

All the guys in Sean's office had a company day out at the lake on Friday - pontoon, jetskis, tubes, and all. The guys spent the entire day out there, playing in the water, partaking in libations, and torturing each other in the playful way that only grown men can. So when Sean called me to tell me than he was related to a Maine lobster, I was extremely concerned. Little did I know I should have put my concern into researching burn treatments online. Let's just say that Sean has been using Aloe Vera gel with Lidocaine, Bactine, and Burn Cream on the tops of his feet and thighs for the entire weekend ... and shoes (even flip-flops) are seemingly the devil's equivalent. Poor Sean ... I can just hear my Mom's voice saying, "you play, you pay." Then I realize it was his boss' idea and work sponsored, so I get to kinda be mad at his job and give him some of the pity I feel for him when I see him cringe when he moves at all.

I digress, so Saturday morning brought the start of the second weekend in a row of houseguests. Sean has a younger sister, Taylor, she is 14 years old and lives in Temecula, California. We were supposed to meet this past Easter weekend, but that didn't work out. So this weekend, Taylor and her father, Paul, drove out to the P-H-X to spend some long overdue quality time with Sean. I was beyond excited that I was going to get an opportunity to start building my relationship with her let alone meet her before the wedding. Taylor's a soft-spoken, smart, pretty young woman who just recently took up dancing (which is exciting for me since I automatically had something to talk to her about). Taylor is also VERY 14 years old and had her cell phone within an arm's reach for the entirety of the weekend. Ha! Love it and I would have wondered if she was feeling ill had it been any different.

Taylor was at Six Flags with her girlfriend's the day before, so shortly after she arrived Taylor and Paul called it "nap time." So Sean and I headed back to our office / wedding war room, I futzed (as I do) and Sean continued to work the amazing alter pieces for our special day.

Before they arrived, Sean's family had put in a special request for meal that his grandmother was known for and since these infamous steak cutlets were so labor-intensive, Sean decided to invite over a few of his friends to celebrate his groomsman, Leo's birthday. So Taylor jumped into the kitchen to help and we ended up with eight people sitting at our dining room table.

Sean and I woke up early Sunday morning, due to our fabulous pups that have decided that 6a.m. is time to wake up all seven days a week (gotta love those pups), so we took advantage of the early morning not-quite-so-stinkin'-hotness and worked on finishing the potting bench Sean built for me, repotting some of my plants, rearranging garage and work shop stuff, and watching our pups play in the sprinklers (their favorite thing in the entire world). The rest of the day was spent pretty much hanging out, catching an IMAX film, watching movies on HBO, Taylor and I running off to Petsmart to buy some doggie clothes for her little mongrel, eating some fabulous spaghetti and surprising Paul with a yummy apple pie as a happy, early birthday gesture.

All in all, it was a fabulous, family- and friend-filled weekend. Yay for another layer of love and memories in our blooming household.