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?!