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.

Puppy Dog Eyes

Look at my sweet puppy.... :)

Bastrop Fire

The fire in Bastrop has yet to be fully contained, although they are making significant progress. It is unbelievable to see pictures of the fire there. It has destroyed hundreds of homes and thousands of acres of land. At one time, the fire stretched to 16 miles long.

We could see the clouds of smoke in Austin...

There have been several fires popping up around the area. There was one 1-2 miles away from our apartment yesterday, but luckily they were able to control it. There have been several smaller fires in the Cedar Park/Leander area, one of which damaged a friend's yard, but thankfully not their house. Unfortunately, it sounds like many of these smaller fires lately have been started purposefully. I just can't imagine what satisfaction someone would get out of doing that. I know a few arrests have been made already.

This morning, while at work, it got real hazy outside and the whole building started smelling like smoke. Apparently it was just blowing through from somewhere else, but it was pretty awful.

Anyway, we're keeping an eye on things, and we've still got some bags packed by the door in case something were to happen.

Fires

No rain + extreme heat + high winds = a lot of fires across Texas.

We had fires all around us last night. Luckily none of them got any closer than about 15 miles away from us. There was a really bad one in Bastrop (southeast of Austin) that destroyed over 400 homes... I think they are still trying to get that one under control. There were some in Pflugerville (north east of us), a couple in Cedar Park (north of us) and a pretty bad one in the Steiner Ranch neighborhood (about 15 miles west of us). There are/were several more in the area. Apparently there were several in other parts of Texas as well.

Some old church friends of ours live in Steiner Ranch and had to evacuate, but we saw a facebook post this morning that they think their house is OK. I just saw a video on the news of a personal video taken by a Steiner Ranch resident and it was just awful. So many homes lost. I haven't heard too much about people being injured though, so thats good.

There were just SO many fires, that we decided we ought to be prepared just in case we were asked to evacuate. Matt put together a few things that he considered the "essentials." We packed a few clothes, the computer (which has all of our pictures), some dog food for Ginny, and all of Matt's musical instruments. :) When I got up this morning I informed Matt that he also needed to add the fire extinguisher to the pile! I made Ginny pose for the picture since we consider her "essential." :)

It sure is tough to try to decide what to pack and what not to pack. Unfortunately, not everyone who had to evacuate last night had that option. We didn't have any immediate threats last night, but we are still at "high risk" for fires today. We're keeping a watch on it and trying to stay safe!

Are You Embarrassed?

Ginny has done this "trick" for a while now, but she is stubborn about it. She usually only does it on command when she is real sleepy. We've tried to catch it on video before and haven't been able to, so I was happy to get this clip last night...