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Who LaurenThePartier!!!

Dandi

Ideal_Rock
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There must be more to the lovely Lauren that the coolest maiden name ever, and my ALL TIME FAVOURITE coloured stone ring collection!!!

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Please, tell us more about you! What are your hobbies and interests?

 
Date: 9/29/2008 7:20:14 AM
Author:DandiAndi

There must be more to the lovely Lauren that the coolest maiden name ever, and my ALL TIME FAVOURITE coloured stone ring collection!!!

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Please, tell us more about you! What are your hobbies and interests?


Andi, I am so flattered - thank you so much for starting this thread, my dear!!!!!!
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So, I''m pretty wordy, but being that I get stuck doing hours of actual work at work, I don''t get as much PS time as I''d like . . .
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So, the posts may be pretty sporadic in here.
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OK, so, my hobbies are pretty all over the place.

I''ve loved jewelry for as long as I can remember, but just didn''t have the funds to buy very much of it until about a decade ago. I must say, I''m having the best time learning about gemstones, and if my company ever sells, I''ll probably take some time off to pursue my GG. I can''t think of a more fun way to go to school!

Beyond that, I love the usual reading, movies, shopping
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etc. Traveling is a huge one for my husband and me, and recently, I''ve really, really gotten into cooking and interior design.

My husband, Weston, and I go rock climbing, and I love it, mostly indoors in a local gym, and we occasionally play tennis. Oh, and we go on daily walks around our neighbourhood, and honestly enjoy it now that the weather is getting cooler and the very last house in our development is being built.
 
Lauren~ So, which part of DFW do you live in? I grew up in and around Irving and Grand Prairie.
 
Date: 10/1/2008 11:58:25 PM
Author: somethingshiny
Lauren~ So, which part of DFW do you live in? I grew up in and around Irving and Grand Prairie.
I''m actually in Plano now, close to the border of Allen.

When I first moved to DFW from Vegas (and after living in an Uptown apartment for a year), I bought a house in South Irving, off of Story and Shady Grove in this adorable little nighbourhood of 1960s houses. I was so proud of that house (and it was really, really cute), but sold it a few years later because the location ended up not being ideal for me.

Do you ever come back to the area?
 
Also, I''ve had no time to update this today as work has been crazy, so I''ll just give you some more current stats about me.

I''m 33
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in 10 days. My husband is 29
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.

I have a younger sister, Leah, and she is 4 years, and 2 months to the day younger than me. I''m October 12th, she''s August 12th.

My sister met her boyfriend/fiance/baby''s father at my wedding.

I was born in the Bay Area (Castro Valley), moved to Las Vegas when I was 2, in August of 1977 (same month Elvis passed away), and lived there until I was 25, and moved briefly to London for work. Then I moved to Dallas by NYE of 2001.

I love to cook. I''ve actually really started cooking more often, and more unusual dishes, and am working on trying to get a cooking blog started.
 
OK, maybe I have some time . . .

My parents are amazing people. My Mom, the oldest of 10 kids in a very Irish Catholic family, and my Father, the baby of 3 boys born to a very Spanish Catholic family. Because of the sheer size of my extended family, I have always been extremely social and outgoing, and really, really enjoy "planned" Sunday dinners with my family. Something my husband hates - more on that later.

My parents were both in college together at UC Hayward, My Mom, an education major, and my Dad a sociology major. It was the late 60s, and my parents claim that they met because my Mom had the answers to some college test, and my Dad wanted them - my suspicion is that they met over a pot deal - I''ve seen pics of my Dad during that era - TOTAL long haired hippy (well, hair on the sides of his head anyway) with tiny round glasses. Stereotypical. ;)

They both graduated, and became teachers in the CA school district. They married in April of 1974, and moved into a tiny house in Hayward, where my Mom grew corn and my Dad mowed the lawn of his own home. A few months before their first anniversary, they found out they were expecting me - "Unplanned, but not Unwanted" as my Dad told me about 3 years ago - and I arrived on October 12th, 1975.

I was a chubby baby - but eventually when I hit my terrible 2s I had somewhat thinned out. Still, I would stick anything in my mouth to try and eat it. Apparently, when I was nearly 14 months old, I was out in the garden and under my Mom''s nose had managed to start chowing down on an ant stake . . . my Mom was frantic, but my family is full of either educators or those in the medical field, so luckily my aunt lived nearby, and induced vomiting so I would survive, then they immediately took me to the hospital. My Aunt still reminds me of that to this day!
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Las Vegas was in dire need of teachers, so right before I was 2, we packed up and moved to Vegas. A few years later, they built their first house (in Spring Valley if anyone is familiar with Vegas) and a couple of years later, in 1980, my little sister was born. We went to church, school, Holidays with the Grandparents in NorCal. It was a fun childhood.

It was interesting growing up in Vegas in the 80s and 90s. The city was growing, booming actually, and there was always something fun to do. I clearly remember going to see the lion at the old MGM Grand (where Bally''s is now). I always felt so bad for him - poor lion, locked in a cage in the lobby of a smokey casino. What kind of life is that for the king of the jungle?

In any case, I went to public school for most of my childhood, until high school when I attended the local Catholic High School (Bishop Gorman - class of 1993!) I had few pets over the years - I never really recovered from the death of my cockatiel, Cleo, when I was in the 7th grade, so I had never really begged my parents too much about getting a furbaby. But then, my sister hit the 2nd grade and started writing in her school journal about how much she wanted a puppy. We eventually got a Sheltie named Samantha, and she was the most amazing dog ever. So sweet, a total lapdog, and loved to "herd" anything, people, cars, the living room - she was a sweetheart and I loved her dearly. She lived to be about 13.5, and had always had a congenital heart defect. She ended up going into heart failure and had to be put to sleep. It was during an especially bad week of my life when I was 27ish, so my parents waited a week or so to tell me. I was so incredibly heartbroken, and still cry when I think about her.

Here''s a family picture - the last time I saw Samantha alive.
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are you really a Partier?
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Date: 10/3/2008 1:21:03 AM
Author: Dancing Fire
are you really a Partier?
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Not only is it my maiden name, it''s also my attitude . . .
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Awwww......Samantha looks sooo adorable! Your hubby''s got a cool name - Weston. I don''t believe I''ve heard that before.
 
As I said, I went to high school at a private Catholic school, where I attended with the likes of Wayne Newton''s daighter, Erin, and Bob Stupak''s son, Nevada.
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It was an interesting culture, as I was there on scholarship, as were most of my friends, but most of the school''s 900 or so attendees were children of astonoshingly wealthy local Las Vegans. Erin, she only attended for one year - I was a Sophpmore, she was a Freshman - when she was kicked out of the school for drug possession. It was pretty much the biggest drama at my school while I was there.

When I turned 16, I got quite into cars, VWs to be exact. I had started dating my high school boyfriend, who introduced me to autocrossing with the SCCA (Sports Car Club of America), which is basically racing around cones in an empty parking lot early on a sunday morning. My father became suspicious when a set of tires would only last 4-6 months, so I finally told him I''d been autocrossing the VW Jetta he had given me to use. It then became a hobby for my Father and me. I dated the same boyfriend all through highschool and the first year of college, when we broke up the first time, but my love of German cars remained. I bought my first new car when I was 21, all by myself - a 1997 VW Cabrio. It was dark blue with a really cool interior. And an auto, which was probably a mistake. But, I loved that car, and I was so incredibly proud of it.

Meanwhile, I graduated college in the top 10 of my class. Not top 10%, top 10. Which actually worked out to top 5% because of the size of my senior class.
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I went to UNLV and studied Architecture, then switched to Mechanical Engineering with a minor in Physics so I could ride on the Engineering team''s Human Powered Vehicle (my how embarrrassing it is now to say "Yeah, I was the female HPV rider for my university.
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" I rode for UNLV in 1994 and 1995, and set a time trial record in 1994, that was immediately broken in 1995. By someone else, not me! In any case, I eventually switched majors back to Business Administration just to get out of school . . .

Around 1999, I had been working for a Credit Union in Las Vegas for about 5 years. They promoted me to a position in IT and I started learning scripting in Unix - fun stuff. I''d been working in that job for about a year or so, when I met a guy I was somewhat interested in online, and happened to make friends with another girl who also lived in Dallas. She asked me if I wanted to come visit her in Dallas, since she had just bought a new house and loved having guests. I had known her online for years before I came out to meet her, but there was something that always drew me to her. I knew we would be close friends for a very long time. I came to Dallas, met the guy, who was ok, but the girl, Kristen, and I just clicked! We''ve been best friends ever since!

After my week in Dallas, I decided to start looking for jobs out here, and ended up finding a company based out of the UK who wanted to hire me. However, I would move to London first for training, and then eventually move to Dallas. I was incredibly excited, seeing as how I had never been out of the country before, but it was an amazing opportunity, and I am so happy that I took the job.

In London, i was living in a flat in Putney. My upstairs neighbour was Dolph Lundgren! I know, I about had the most embarrassing first encounter ever in the tiny lift in our building. Apparently he was used to mid-20s girls calling him He-Man!
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I loved my time spent in London - I lived incredibly close to the Thames, and walked everywhere! I think I went from a size 4 to a 0 while I lived there, even though I ate incredibly well, and tried loads of new cuisines, like Morroccan, African, Iranian, etc. I think this is where my cooking hobby came from, but it took several more years to develop.

My boss was an amazing women from South Africa named Sarah, I was on a team of girls doing customer relations. One named Tania, who lived in the UK, but was Spanish by heritage, and another lovely South African woman named Gayle. I loved working with them, and their energy was just amazing!

This is a pic of the 4 of us at Leeds Castle during a "Team Building" trip.

Me, Tania, Sarah, and Gayle.

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Date: 10/3/2008 3:39:34 PM
Author: joflier
Awwww......Samantha looks sooo adorable! Your hubby''s got a cool name - Weston. I don''t believe I''ve heard that before.
I loved that dog. She was amazing, and although Weston is fighting me on getting a dog, if we do, I want a runt Sheltie.
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Weston''s initials are actually WWW, making me Mrs. WWW.

Oh, yeah, and if we have a boy, I have to name him W_____ Weston W_______ - kind of a neat tradition, and my Dad''s name is William, so I''m going to fight for that one if it becomes an issue. I don''t suppose it will for a while.
 
I mentioned my Mom having a big family. . . here is a small sample of my extended family - this pic is from 2004 at my Uncle Mike''s wedding!

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Your family is gorgeous!!! I am so happy you have a WW; you are such a doll here on PS!
 
After I moved back to Dallas from London, I started to beome active with local VW message board. I went to GTGs, VW shows in Houston, Dallas, and Austin, and I met some of my closest friends through our events and BBQs.

When I moved back here, Kristen and I moved into an apartment together near Uptown. We had a great time living near Greenville and Deep Ellum, very fun places to be when you''re a single mid-20something. When our lease was due to expire, I decided to look for a house, and eventually found one in a quiet neighbourhood in Irving. I loved my house, signed for it on my 26th birthday, and I was so proud of the deal I had negotiated. It was about 1,400 square feet, 3 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, and a 2 car garage. It was built in the early 60s, but had been recently renovated and had dark WilsonArt wood floors and new appliances. I spent the next few months decorating, and Kristen and I were getting along famously. A few months later, she decided to move back home to go back to school, so I was frantic looking for another roommate.

I then posted the room for rent on our local VW message board, and a guy named Weston emailed me about the room! I loved how he wrote - he had somewhat of an English flair to his text, and after having lived in the UK, I was in love with almost everything British. We set up a time to meet so he could see the house, and so we could see if we could work out as roommates. He came to the door, and I was smitten immediately - he was much, much cuter than I thought he would be! We ended up going to a Turkish restaurant for dinner that night, and although we didn''t go out on a "date" he opened my door for me when getting into the car. For that matter, he has always done this for me over the past 6.5 years.
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He moved in a few weeks later, and within a few weeks, we were dating, so a few weeks after that, he moved back out so we could have a chance to date like a "normal" couple.

This is a pic of us from one of our first dinners out together . . . April 2002, I think?

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Date: 10/3/2008 4:31:02 PM
Author: Skippy123
Your family is gorgeous!!! I am so happy you have a WW; you are such a doll here on PS!
Awwwww, Skippy! Thank you, dear!

I''ll be honest, I never came in here until I got the email from the Admin. I''ve been having such a great time catching up on everyone else''s WWs!!!!!
 
Lauren~ Sorry, I just popped online today. It''s been a long weekend...

Up until I got pregnant with our son (who''s 2.5), I went down to Waxahachie/Red Oak 2-3 times a year. I was very close with a cousin and we would go back and forth pretty frequently. It''s around a 14 hour drive from where I am, and I swear I could drive it with my eyes closed! It was always fun to still visit, but I cannot take the heat! I usually visited in Feb and Oct. The last time I visited in the dead of summer, stayed for the fourth of July, and I nearly died!

When I was a kid though, it didn''t seem that bad. Probably the sprinklers....

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Its lovely to get to know you better Lauren.. so if you like all things english you must like me!
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Date: 10/5/2008 7:36:59 PM
Author: somethingshiny
Lauren~ Sorry, I just popped online today. It''s been a long weekend...

Up until I got pregnant with our son (who''s 2.5), I went down to Waxahachie/Red Oak 2-3 times a year. I was very close with a cousin and we would go back and forth pretty frequently. It''s around a 14 hour drive from where I am, and I swear I could drive it with my eyes closed! It was always fun to still visit, but I cannot take the heat! I usually visited in Feb and Oct. The last time I visited in the dead of summer, stayed for the fourth of July, and I nearly died!

When I was a kid though, it didn''t seem that bad. Probably the sprinklers....

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SS, I sometimes wish for every weekend to be a long weekend . . .
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Do you get back to Waxahachie much? I have some friends who live down in that area, and we''ve yet to go see their new home. I know, we''re bad friends, but it''s the DFW. If it''s more than 30 miles or outside of my city, we just won''t go.
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Where do you live now? I moved to Dallas from Vegas, and I had sent all of my belongings on a truck while I was living in London, and it took me FOUR days to get to Dallas, which was only about 1,400 miles. Of course, I chose to move during Christmas.
 
Date: 10/6/2008 9:14:03 AM
Author: iwannaprettyone
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Status : MARRIED!!!!!! I can''t wait to see you in a couple of weeks - this GTG has been too long in coming!
 
Date: 10/7/2008 2:07:57 PM
Author: Maisie
Its lovely to get to know you better Lauren.. so if you like all things english you must like me!
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Of course, Maisie!!!! Aside from what I can only assume is a lovely accent, you''re already my MySpace friend, and that''s saying something!!!!
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So, I have a hilarious story about a British man I met over there, and I may have told it here once, but when I was living in London, I was working for a company called Micromuse. I lived fairly close to the office in a flat off of St. John''s Avenue and the High Street.

There was this bar across from the office, the Queen Adelaide, and I met a gentleman there. He was an Electrical Engineer for Ford UK, and had the most posh accent ever! I could listen to him for hours, but he wasn''t . . . much to look at.
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He kept asking me out on dates, and finally I relented. We went to Hampton Court Palace and some French restaurant that night. He was a bit too . . . forward . . . on the date, so I decided we probably wouldn''t see each other again.

Except, I was young and didn''t know how to gracefully say, "no, thanks" to another date, so I just started avoiding his calls and emails.
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I hadn''t heard from him in about 3 weeks, and he sends me an email to my Yahoo account. There was nothing in the body of the email, but there was a word doc attached. So, I''m sitting at work, open the attachment, and there is this 4 page doc talking about how wonderful I am . . . and then there is a 2 page gap with nothing but arrows pointing down.

And then - he proposed! By Email! After ONE DATE!!!!
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I''m pretty sure he was just looking for a green card, but I never did email him back.
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Date: 10/8/2008 12:00:37 PM
Author: LaurenThePartier

Date: 10/6/2008 9:14:03 AM
Author: iwannaprettyone
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Status : MARRIED!!!!!! I can''t wait to see you in a couple of weeks - this GTG has been too long in coming!

I am sooo excited too!!
 
Date: 10/3/2008 3:55:56 PM
Author: LaurenThePartier


Date: 10/3/2008 3:39:34 PM
Author: joflier
Awwww......Samantha looks sooo adorable! Your hubby's got a cool name - Weston. I don't believe I've heard that before.
I loved that dog. She was amazing, and although Weston is fighting me on getting a dog, if we do, I want a runt Sheltie.
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Weston's initials are actually WWW, making me Mrs. WWW.

Oh, yeah, and if we have a boy, I have to name him W_____ Weston W_______ - kind of a neat tradition, and my Dad's name is William, so I'm going to fight for that one if it becomes an issue. I don't suppose it will for a while.
WWW, that's a cool tradition! Thanks for sharing about yourself! So.......do you have any other hobbies besides the VWs?
 
So, I found some old pics that I thought were lost forever . . . so, it''s picture time.

My first house, I signed for it on my 26th birthday.

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And the backyard! I loved this yard - it was so serene and green!

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Date: 10/8/2008 12:18:09 PM
Author: joflier

Date: 10/3/2008 3:55:56 PM
Author: LaurenThePartier



Date: 10/3/2008 3:39:34 PM
Author: joflier
Awwww......Samantha looks sooo adorable! Your hubby''s got a cool name - Weston. I don''t believe I''ve heard that before.
I loved that dog. She was amazing, and although Weston is fighting me on getting a dog, if we do, I want a runt Sheltie.
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Weston''s initials are actually WWW, making me Mrs. WWW.

Oh, yeah, and if we have a boy, I have to name him W_____ Weston W_______ - kind of a neat tradition, and my Dad''s name is William, so I''m going to fight for that one if it becomes an issue. I don''t suppose it will for a while.
WWW, that''s a cool tradition! Thanks for sharing about yourself! So.......do you have any other hobbies besides the VWs?

I do, lots of them actually.

I love rock-climbing. My husband and I mostly climb indoors, but occasionally we''ll go outside. We go to a gym in Dallas that''s the tallest indoor climbing gym in the country. My fvaourite route is 14 stories high! It''s a 5.11a, so not too challenging, but so long that it definitely gets a workout in.

I LOVE cooking! I''ve been toying with the idea of starting a food blog. I''ve started my new love recently, since we discovered a portion of the granite from our house that fits perfectly into our oven - home-made pizza!!!!!

I''ve started refinishing furniture - I''m only 2 chairs in, but I''ve caught the bug and I''m looking for more pieces around my house that I can refinish.

I''m an internet nerd - I think I spend an excessive amount of time online, but what else am I supposed to do while I''m working?
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The VWs/German cars don''t take up much of my time anymore, really. I drive an Audi TT Roadter, that I LOVE!

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Weston and I LOVE to travel, and everytime we go somewhere new, we take pics of our shadows on the beach/vineyard, etc.

This is our first trip together - to Los Cabos in 2004.

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And then Jamaica, Sandals RC in 2005.

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And Nevis for our honeymoon . . .

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