Christmas Songs - Day 25

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!! (you might watch the video from YouTube so you can see the full screen... you can watch it there by clicking HERE)

God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen - Matt & Lauren

Christmas Songs - Day 24

Ok, ok... I know I did a Bing Crosby version of this song last year.... but it just has to be Bing Crosby singing this song. It has to be. Last year the clip was from the movie "White Christmas." This year the clip is from the movie "Holiday Inn." MERRY CHRISTMAS EVE!

White Christmas - Bing Crosby & Marjorie Reynolds

Christmas Songs - Day 23

Silver Bells - Perry Como & Diahann Carroll

Singing Christmas Carols

I guess all of the Christmas carols lately have put Ginny in the Christmas spirit... that dog will NOT stop singing Christmas songs!! (I think she was singing Jingle Bells in this one...)

Silly dog...

Christmas Songs - Day 22

Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas - She & Him

Christmas Songs - Day 21

Silent Night - Bing Crosby

Christmas Songs - Day 20

O Little Town of Bethlehem - Michael Martin Murphey
(for Matt)

Christmas Songs - Day 19

What Child Is This - Mercy Me

Christmas Songs - Day 18

O Come O Come Emmanuel - Selah

Christmas Songs - Day 17

Carol Of The Bells - Big Phat Band

Christmas Songs - Day 16

All I Want For Christmas Is You - Dave Barnes

Christmas Songs - Day 15

It's Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas - Perry Como

Christmas Songs - Day 14

God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen - Big Phat Band

Christmas Songs - Day 13

Blue Christmas - Porky Pig

Christmas Songs - Day 12

I have been sick for a couple of days and fell behind on my Christmas songs. I asked Matt if he would pick out a few for me and, of course, this is the first one he picks. :) The next few days (today, tomorrow, and Wednesday) are courtesy of Matt. :)

Santa Claus Is Watching You - Ray Stevens

Christmas Songs - Day 11

Baby It's Cold Outside - Willie Nelson ft. Norah Jones

Christmas Songs - Day 10

Adeste Fidelis (O Come All Ye Faithful) - Nat King Cole

Christmas Songs - Day 9

Mary Did You Know - The Isaacs

Christmas Songs - Day 8

Ok, I have to be honest, I just couldn't pick between these two songs for today! It is the same song, but by two different artists/groups. So instead of being forced to pick only ONE, I'll just share BOTH for today! Listen to them both, then let me know which one YOU prefer!

I've Got My Love To Keep Me Warm - Rosemary Clooney, Tony Randall, and Tab Hunter




I've Got My Love To Keep Me Warm - Ella Fitzgerald & Louis Armstrong

Christmas Songs - Day 7

Let It Snow - John Legend

Christmas Songs - Day 6

Christmas Waltz - Frank Sinatra

Christmas Songs - Day 5

Sleigh Ride - Ella Fitzgerald

Christmas Songs - Day 4

Two-Step 'Round the Christmas Tree - Suzy Bogguss

Christmas Songs - Day 3

Mele Kalikimaka - Bing Crosby

Christmas Songs - Day 2

Jingle Bells - Bing Crosby with the Andrews Sisters

Christmas Songs - Day 1

I decided to do 25 days of Christmas songs again this year. I am not as prepared as I was last year, so I may be picking out songs from day to day (as compared to having a nice list to choose from last year), but we'll get our way through it. :) The first song is just plain fun. I couldn't help but smile while watching this... and I too have wondered if rainbows really know how to fly... (listen carefully and you'll notice what I'm talking about!) Enjoy!

The Christmas Song - Mel Torme & Judy Garland

Birthday Boy

I'm a week late, but HAPPY BIRTHDAY MATT! :) Matt turned a whopping 25 last Tuesday. We went out for ice cream, got him a new shirt (that he is wearing in the picture) and enjoyed some yummy Olive Garden.

Ginny was happy to see the Birthday Boy when he got home from work... :)

Anniversary Trip - Day 5

This is the least exciting post, because day 5 was when we had to leave. :( We headed back to Gainesville, picked up the dog, and drove back to Austin. The next day, we started back to work and played "catch up" after being gone from work for 3 days. Back to laundry, back to homework, back to dishes, back to work, and back to reality!

Really, though, we had a great time and really enjoyed having a few days off to celebrate being married for TWO WHOLE YEARS! ;-)

Anniversary Trip - Day 4

On our last day, we did a lot of relaxing. :) We went and saw two movies.

The first movie we saw was Moneyball. It was pretty good, and worth seeing, but not fantastic. Brad Pitt plays the general manager of the Oakland A's in the early 2000's.



We also saw Jack & Jill. It is Adam Sandler's newest movie. It is a funny/stupid movie. It wasn't quite as funny as I had hoped, but it was still pretty funny. I wouldn't recommend seeing it in theaters, but it might be worth renting sometime.



We also went to a Japanese Steakhouse that night. I had only been to one once before, and Matt had never been to one. We had to take our shoes off then crawl down to this table that was set down in the floor. I know I'm only 24 years old, but that stuff is hard for me to do. I'm like an old person... my knees and my back ache in the mornings, when its cold, and when I'm expected to crawl down to a table. :) We had soup, rice, broccoli, onions, and zucchini then Matt had chicken and I had steak. And for all of you who are already thinking, "yeah right, Lauren didn't eat any of that," I ate it all but the onions! So there! And I actually enjoyed it! :) We had a lot of fun and were absolutely STUFFED by the time we finished eating.

I guess you could say the great food made up for the so-so movies. :)

Anniversary Trip - Day 3

On Saturday, we took it easy most of the day! We slept in a little bit, enjoyed the free breakfast at the hotel, watched a movie on TV, and just relaxed! Later in the afternoon we went to the Fort Worth Museum of Science and History and saw the IMAX movie, Hubble. You can watch the trailer here:



After that we went to Braums and Matt had pumpkin ice cream, and I had eggnog ice cream. :) WONDERFUL.

Later that evening we went to the Fort Worth Stockyards for the rodeo! We got a deal on Groupon for two box seats for the price of one. Now, that sounds luxurious to say we had box seats, but don't be confused.... they were six old, tiny, fold up metal chairs in a "box." They were good seats as far as the view was concerned (1st and 2nd row seats) but it certainly wasn't what we were expecting. :) The rodeo was a blast! Some of those guys are absolutely crazy for doing what they do, but it was entertaining. We saw a few guys get stomped on pretty bad (one by a bull, another by a horse) but luckily neither was seriously hurt. One guy was limping the rest of the night, but he got back on the horse later and rode again. Crazy guys!

The camera wasn't taking great pictures inside the arena, so we didn't get many pictures, but I'll share one that we got:


Of course when we left the rodeo, it was almost 11:00pm so Matt insisted we hit up the nearby Whataburger so he could get some breakfast taquitos (they don't serve them until 11pm). I rarely turn down breakfast food, so I treated myself to a biscuit sandwich. (what? what was I supposed to do?!) :)

Anniversary Trip - Day 2: House of Blues

That night we went to House of Blues for their weekly "Uptown Jazz." We had looked up some videos of the group and they sounded pretty good, so we decided that would be a fun thing to go to. When we got there, we found out that it was the first week of Uptown Jazz: Soul Edition. The group that played ended up being more R&B/Soul but we still really enjoyed it! Her name is Carmen Rodgers. We bought her two CDs because we really enjoyed watching them live. The CDs aren't quite as good as I had hoped, but there are still a few good ones. Here is one of her songs, if you're interested:

It was a late night, but we had a good time!

Anniversary Trip - Day 2: Ballpark in Arlington

After our tour of Cowboys stadium, we headed across the street to the Ballpark in Arlington. They are doing a lot of construction there, so things were actually pretty torn up (like our hearts... come on Rangers!!!)

Hmm... still a little upset, I guess. :)

These pictures were taken in the Rangers press conference room. As with the Cowboys, this is where coaches and players will do post game interviews.



We also went to the batting cages. It was amazing to see the facilities and equipment that the Rangers used after having toured Cowboys Stadium... just completely different.


There was a white board in the room with the batting cages where outfielder Josh Hamilton had written some words to his teammates. You can check out a cool video of Josh Hamilton sharing his story through the organization called I Am Second by clicking HERE.


We didn't get to tour the locker rooms for some reason... I was a little bummed about that. We still got to go into the dugout, though! :)


Our view of the field from the dugout... (you can see the construction in center field)


Here I am sitting in Ron Washington's seat in the Rangers dugout...


Now Matt's turn... :)



As I said before, the tour of the ballpark was MUCH different than Cowboys Stadium, for a lot of reasons, but we enjoyed it all the same! GO RANGERS!! (maybe third times a charm?? maybe??)

Anniversary Trip - Day 2: Cowboys Stadium

On Friday morning we got up and headed to Arlington to tour Cowboys Stadium. Holy Cow. That about sums it up. It is absolutely ridiculous... it has gotten a lot of hype for a reason. It is REALLY neat, but also gives you a sick feeling in your stomach sometimes to see how much money has gone into it. Our tour guide spit out all kinds of crazy facts, many of which I don't remember... but trust me, it is ridiculous. I'll share a few pictures from our trip there (and any facts I can remember).

First fact, you could put the Statue of Liberty inside Cowboys Stadium and her flame would not touch the top. Yeah. This picture is from the box where Jerry Jones sits.


You can see the famous giant screen in the background here. That screen alone cost more than it cost to build ALL of Texas Stadium (the old stadium). It is also 7 stories tall.


All of the seats are recycled plastic according to our guide, but they look and feel like leather. They are also a few inches wider than seats in other NFL stadiums. The seats are also set up in a way that, if a seat breaks during a game, rather than having to stand for the remainder of the game (like you would anywhere else) they have the ability to slide the seat off of a rail system and pop a new one on there. The whole process of changing out the seat would take no longer than 10 minutes.


We went into the Cowboys Cheerleader locker room, but I chose to leave those pictures out. Sorry guys! :) It just wasn't very exciting, thats all. What was much more exciting was seeing the Cowboys locker room. I had my picture taken in front of one of my favorite player's lockers.... Jason Witten!


Here is Matt standing in front of DeMarcus Ware's locker. The wood used for the lockers was imported from Africa.


Yes I put on the jersey and shoulder pads they had in the locker room... and yes, they were meant for people to put on... I didn't steal Miles Austin's jersey. And yes, I look like an idiot (and like I gained 400 lbs). :)



We visited a lot of the "clubs" within Cowboys Stadium. One of the features in most of those is a special granite tile that, when the light hits it right, shines "Cowboy blue." $50 a square. There are also TV screens EVERYWHERE. They broke a record for how many screens are there, but I can't remember a number. We also visited the press room where coaches and players give interviews before and after games. They also have a lot of art work inside that is really neat.

This picture is the star on the ceiling in the Miller Light club. The team goes through here to get to the field.


At the end of our tour, we got to go out on the field!




This is looking up right outside the stadium...


..and this is the view of the stadium from the Ballpark in Arlington (that post is next).


I thought the tickets for the tour of Cowboys Stadium were a little high for a TOUR, but it was definitely worth it! There were so many neat things to see, and they really did put a lot of work into making it "one of a kind." The Cowboys had me nervous at the beginning of the season, but they seem to be picking up some steam (hopefully). GO COWBOYS! :)

Anniversary Trip - Day 1

Matt and I left last Thursday morning and drove up to Gainesville. We dropped Ginny off at my parents house (and she was SUPER excited about staying with Nana & Grangoat... she knows that grandkids AND grand-dogs get spoiled there). We grabbed some lunch with my mom, then from there, we headed to the Dallas area! I sumamrize our trip by saying the "Dallas area" because we were all over the place... but you know, "DALLAS."

That evening we went to Malibu Speed Zone. The closest thing I had ever come to riding go-karts is probably bumper cars at a carnival or something. These were so much fun. There weren't very many people there since it was a Thursday night, so we probably only waited in line for a total of 10 minutes (if even that) the whole night. We started out just having fun, but got pretty competitive as the night went on. I may have made a guy really mad when I took advantage of the small space he left on the corner turn and passed him up. :)


We had a blast at Speed Zone! And I won, as you can clearly see by the picture above. :)

Two Year Anniversary

On Monday, Matt and I celebrated our two year wedding anniversary!

We actually took a trip/vacation this year to celebrate! I will work on having those posts/pictures up before the end of the week. So check back soon!

Sick Pig

Here is a breakdown of my week:

Sunday: itchy throat, missed church
Monday: itchy throat, no voice, went to work
Tuesday: itchy throat, no voice, small cough, went to work and wished I had stayed home
Wednesday: sore throat, no voice, cough, missed work, went to doctor
Thursday: sore throat, no voice, bad cough, congestion, headache, missed work
Friday: slightly sore throat, bad cough, congestion, headache, missed work, calling doctor again

Sounds like fun, huh? The doctor thought it was strep throat, but I tested negative for that. He thinks it is just a virus, and gave me some cough syrup to help me sleep. I had been taking TWO Benadryl before bed, which usually knocks me out cold, and I still wasn't getting any sleep. The cough syrup has helped me get some sleep, but I'm still waking up several times during the night. I called the doctor this morning to let him know I feel like I'm getting WORSE, and he is supposed to call me back soon. Hopefully we can figure something out!

So, since I've been sick, I've been just sitting around at home. I had fallen asleep on the couch yesterday when I heard a LOUD squeal/squeak/OINK noise. I immediately knew it was Ginny's pig and I got kind of mad at first because I thought she was just playing with it (loudly and in my face) but I looked over to find this:

She had decided she wanted to lay on the couch too. She hopped up there and plopped down right on top of her pig. This picture absolutely cracks me up because of the pig... he LOOKS like a 60 pound dog just plopped down on him! Plus, you can see how Ginny is kind of holding her head down like, "I didn't do anything..."

Haha!

So, I know this post wasn't really about a sick pig, as the title suggested... but it was the best I could come up with. Give me a break! :)

Ginny Eats Soap

Ginny is REALLY good about knowing what is hers to chew on/eat and what is not. Lately, however, she has been a little bit more sneaky about getting into a few things. Luckily, it is usually just a kleenex from the trash can or an empty toilet paper roll or something like that... nothing valuable. The other day she discovered....



SOAP. She tore open the box (and very carefully, actually....look at it! She only opened one end!) and got a little chunk of soap with one bite, apparently. I don't think she had much interest in actually EATING the soap, but we caught her again another time with it just licking it. We had to hide the soap in the bathroom.... to keep our dog from eating it. Or licking it. Either way, its weird.


She's weird. But cute. Have I ever mentioned that??

Lap Dog

It is really starting to get a little out of hand... this dog thinks she ALWAYS has to be in someone's lap.... and yes, I know that I am to blame for that (Matt). But isn't she cute?!

Halloween Costume

This year, for Halloween, I decided to dress up like...

...Keith Porter. Unfortunately for those on my side of the family, this won't mean a thing to you. Matt's side of the family, however, will get it. :)

I must say, this was definitely the easiest costume I've ever made! Mostly because the attire that we often tease Keith for, is actually very comfortable and a "regular" after-work outfit of mine (minus the mustache, of course).

Matt said he was going to put on his Neftali Feliz jersey/shirt and be a "loser."

OOoooo.... too soon, I think. (for those who aren't aware, Feliz is a closing pitcher for the Texas Rangers who couldn't get the job done in game 6. Had he gotten those three outs, or even that ONE strike, Rangers would've won the world series....so sad.)

Happy Halloween!

Rangers

Well the Rangers won game 5 of the World Series! They now lead the series 3-2. No game tonight, but game 6 will be on Wednesday. HOW EXCITING.

Matt and I drove to Waco last night to hear the Waco Jazz Orchestra. Matt's brother, Josh, plays in it and had a couple of solos. The show was songs by Frank Sinatra and Count Basie, and they had a guest singer. The singer was pretty good, but he had nothin' on Frank. ;-) The show was a lot of fun and we really enjoyed it! We got updates on the game during intermission, along with an update or two from the jazz orchestra director throughout the show.

As soon as we got in the car to head home, we found the game on the radio. The station kept going out along the way but, with the help of my parents, we were able to find stations that were carrying the game. We lost the last station just seconds after the game ended! Listen. I know people used to have to listen to that stuff on the radio all the time... but that was absolutely excruciating. At one point, when the Rangers really needed a hit, the announcer said, "He hits the ball right to the pitcher, the pitcher can't grab it but it bounces to the second baseman, he bobbles it, picks it up, throws it to first, BUT THE RUNNER IS SAFE!" Oh my goodness... Matt and I were freaking out. It is so difficult to follow when you can't SEE what is going on!

This series has been stressful, to say the least. We're looking forward to game 6 tomorrow, and hopefully the first ever World Series title for the Texas Rangers!

Watching the Rangers

Ginny has been watching all of the Rangers games with us, although she isn't nearly as enthusiastic as we are. :)

Neither of us were very enthusiastic after Game 3 of the World Series last night... YIKES. I sure hope the Rangers play better tonight!!

GO RANGERS!

Segway Tour

Today Matt and I took a Segway tour of downtown Austin! We were both a little nervous and a little skeptical that it would actually be fun, but we had a blast!! They felt VERY strange at first, but it doesn't take long to get used to it... then they're a ton of fun! As you can see in the picture above, our first stop was at the capitol. That building is HUGE! We see it every week when we go to church, but when you are right there next to it, it is so big! Here are a few pictures from our trip. (I was in a black and white pictures kind of mood tonight... ;-))

We even got a chance to go inside for a few minutes and look around. I think I toured the capitol once when I was a kid, but I don't remember it. Matt and I decided we'd like to go back sometime when we can spend more time there.

One thing you have to get used to on a Segway is that they don't really ever completely stop. You can kind of rock back and forth in place, or swivel from side to side, but its very difficult to stop. I was going slow and turned around and took this picture of Matt. After that, I took off and put the camera in my pocket... or so I thought. I actually missed my pocket and dropped our digital camera... on the concrete.... while moving. It smashed up a small corner of it, but everything still works! Whew! :)

I was really nervous that I'd end up falling off or crashing or something. I always seem to hurt myself, so I figured getting on a Segway was just asking for disaster. Surprisingly, I didn't crash! I bumped Matt's wheel once when we were stopped and it scared me and I stepped off. Even when you step off, the Segway still tries to move, so it was a little weird... haha! The guide had to come over and help me get back on it. Matt laughed at me. ;-)

I didn't actually mean to get myself in this picture, but its kind of fun!

Caught Matt off guard...

We went all around downtown Austin. We saw the Congress bridge where the bats are, the "haunted" Driskill Hotel, and.... 6th Street. Yikes. One girl nearly ran right into someone's STOPPED segway because she was so drunk. I'm pretty sure her eyes weren't even open... and this was before 5:00pm! Someone else was smoking so much weed that we could barely breathe when we passed by. I think I might've gotten a little buzzed! ;-) One guy tried to throw his cigarette out onto the sidewalk from a bar but ended up throwing it on me then laughed about it. The reputation of 6th Street is clearly true! I realized why we avoid it. :)

We saw a lot of neat things downtown though and it was a really cool tour. The best part is that now anytime we go back we can do ANY tour for one set price, which is 50% OR MORE off their regular prices! We really enjoyed it, and I think we might do it again sometime!

In case you noticed, YES those are jackets we're wearing. We were worried about the weather for our tour because it has actually been raining here (gasp!), but the rain held off and we just got the cooler temperatures for the tour. PERFECT!

Weekend

This past weekend we took a trip to north Texas. We got to Gainesville on Friday night and spent some time visiting with my parents. Then, Saturday morning, my mom, Karen, and I went and got pedicures. Matt picked me up from there and we drove to Dallas to visit with Brad and Nova and see sweet Solomon! I can't believe how big he is already! This was the first time we'd seen him since right after he was born, so we were happy to be there. :) We left from their house and went to the Rangers game! The Rangers won and we had a great time. We had "all you can eat" seats so we had unlimited hot dogs, chicken sandwiches, nachos, popcorn, peanuts and soft drinks! Needless to say, we ate WAY too much! :) After the game we met my parents and the Austins at Red Lobster in Denton. Of course after all of those hotdogs, we weren't too hungry, so we just stopped by to be social. :) I was pretty irritated at myself because I had my camera with me the entire time, but forgot to take ANY pictures of Solomon OR the Rangers game! :( Sorry!

On Sunday we just spent some time hanging out at my parents house, enjoying the slightly cooler weather. I decided to get their nice camera and take some pictures of Ginny. I didn't have much luck so I passed it along to Matt and he got some pretty good ones! Enjoy!

My parent's dog, Max...

Ginny LOVES Max's toys... that is the first thing she goes for when we go to their house. She will roll around and toss them around... she LOVES IT! She got one of Max's toys and was playing with it in the yard when Max came over wanting to reclaim his toy! As you can see by this picture, Ginny wasn't fond of that idea... she is giving him the stink eye!!

I was disappointed that this one didn't focus on Ginny, but it is still a funny picture! She LOVES playing fetch!

We had a great, but tiring, weekend!

Back to reality here in Austin... my car battery died, I had a test yesterday, I have a paper due next Monday, a huge pile of dirty laundry at home, dishes piled up in the sink, a full schedule next weekend.... *sigh*

I could use a nap... ;-)

Ginny Picture

I took this picture with my phone the other day, then edited it and came out with this! I sure think she's a pretty dog! :)

This Video Made My Day

This is fantastic... I love it!

Ginny's Report Card

Yesterday morning we took Ginny to Happy Tails Pet Resort. We had plans to hang out with some friends last night and knew we'd be out late. In the past we have just arranged to have someone come over and feed and walk her, but we thought we'd try the "Pet Resort." We took her yesterday morning, and just picked her up this morning... so she stayed there overnight. When we picked her up, we got her "report card."

She "Loved" outside time, playing on equipment, and "double" loved pettin' and lovin'. She also thought playing ball and swimming were "Kinda fun." Apparently she behaved herself and had a good time. :) She was WOUND UP when we picked her up. We came straight home and took her outside to the dog park here and she just ran and played until she wore herself out.

She crashed when we got back inside...

She was happy to see Matt... :)

It isn't super cheap to put her up there, but its nice to have that as an option. I was relieved that she seemed to be happy there and the people seemed nice.