Lauren

Christmas Songs - Day 25

2011-12-25T00:01:00.002-06:00

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

2011-12-24T00:05:00.001-06:00

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

2011-12-23T00:01:00.000-06:00

Silver Bells - Perry Como & Diahann Carroll

Singing Christmas Carols

2011-12-22T14:23:00.003-06:00

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

2011-12-22T14:22:00.001-06:00

Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas - She & Him

Christmas Songs - Day 21

2011-12-21T09:53:00.001-06:00

Silent Night - Bing Crosby

Christmas Songs - Day 20

2011-12-20T09:42:00.000-06:00

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

Christmas Songs - Day 19

2011-12-19T09:41:00.000-06:00

What Child Is This - Mercy Me

Christmas Songs - Day 18

2011-12-18T09:35:00.000-06:00

O Come O Come Emmanuel - Selah

Christmas Songs - Day 17

2011-12-17T10:54:00.001-06:00

Carol Of The Bells - Big Phat Band

Christmas Songs - Day 16

2011-12-16T10:51:00.000-06:00

All I Want For Christmas Is You - Dave Barnes

Christmas Songs - Day 15

2011-12-15T10:50:00.000-06:00

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

Christmas Songs - Day 14

2011-12-14T22:30:00.000-06:00

God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen - Big Phat Band

Christmas Songs - Day 13

2011-12-13T22:29:00.000-06:00

Blue Christmas - Porky Pig

Christmas Songs - Day 12

2011-12-12T22:27:00.002-06:00

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

2011-12-11T20:18:00.000-06:00

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

Christmas Songs - Day 10

2011-12-10T20:17:00.000-06:00

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

Christmas Songs - Day 9

2011-12-09T10:32:00.001-06:00

Mary Did You Know - The Isaacs

Christmas Songs - Day 8

2011-12-08T12:23:00.002-06:00

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

2011-12-07T12:14:00.000-06:00

Let It Snow - John Legend

Christmas Songs - Day 6

2011-12-06T20:03:00.000-06:00

Christmas Waltz - Frank Sinatra

Christmas Songs - Day 5

2011-12-05T11:36:00.001-06:00

Sleigh Ride - Ella Fitzgerald

Christmas Songs - Day 4

2011-12-04T16:19:00.003-06:00

Two-Step 'Round the Christmas Tree - Suzy Bogguss

Christmas Songs - Day 3

2011-12-03T10:25:00.000-06:00

Mele Kalikimaka - Bing Crosby

Christmas Songs - Day 2

2011-12-02T09:34:00.001-06:00

Jingle Bells - Bing Crosby with the Andrews Sisters

Christmas Songs - Day 1

2011-12-01T21:09:00.002-06:00

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

2011-11-29T14:42:00.003-06:00

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

2011-11-20T20:40:00.002-06:00

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

2011-11-17T12:59:00.008-06:00

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

2011-11-17T12:06:00.000-06:00

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

2011-11-17T12:03:00.000-06:00

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

2011-11-17T12:02:00.000-06:00

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

2011-11-17T12:01:00.000-06:00

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

2011-11-17T12:00:00.000-06:00

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

2011-11-16T16:22:00.002-06:00

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

2011-11-04T08:46:00.006-06:00

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

2011-11-01T18:03:00.004-06:00

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

2011-11-01T18:01:00.004-06:00

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

2011-10-31T17:36:00.003-06:00

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

2011-10-25T08:34:00.002-05:00

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

2011-10-23T13:16:00.002-05:00

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

2011-10-09T20:49:00.008-05:00

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

2011-09-27T14:07:00.004-05:00

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

2011-09-22T13:58:00.001-05:00

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

2011-09-15T14:28:00.000-05:00

This is fantastic... I love it!

Ginny's Report Card

2011-09-10T11:31:00.004-05:00

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

2011-09-09T15:59:00.000-05:00

Look at my sweet puppy.... :)

Bastrop Fire

2011-09-07T13:50:00.002-05:00

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

2011-09-05T09:41:00.005-05:00

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?

2011-09-04T20:29:00.002-05:00

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...

Craigslist Rocking Chair

2011-08-25T21:05:00.003-05:00

When I don't have anything to do, I like to get on Craigslist and look at two different categories.

"Pets" and "Antiques"

This particular time, I was looking at antiques. I wasn't looking for anything in particular, just browsing. I came across a rocking chair for sale that looked JUST like one that my grandmother used to have in her house.

I recently (within the past month or two) had a dream that I went back to my grandmother's house and I was so sad that the people now living there had changed it so much. Everything looked so different.... except for one room. The smaller living room was EXACTLY the same, and I went in and sat in the rocking chair that she kept in there and just enjoyed being in my grandmother's living room.

That same rocking chair is the one I found on Craigslist! I went to Matt and gave him my sweet, puppy dog eyes, told him that it was really special to me, and asked if I could buy it. He just looked at me and said, "How am I supposed to say no to that?" (that means I have the puppy dog eyes down)

SO. I contacted the lady and found out that she had already talked to a guy about him possibly picking it up on Saturday. I told her I'd pay $10 more than the asking price if she'd let me have it instead, and explained why I wanted it. I then found out that she had just increased the price on the listing to nearly TWICE as much as originally listed, it just hadn't updated on the site yet.

The good news.... I got a message from the lady that said, "I'll let you have it for the price you offered since I know you really want it."

YAY! So we drove to Round Rock and met the woman in a Panda Express parking lot (which Matt liked, because he LOVES their orange chicken!) and picked it up! She said that she started doing some research and thinks it might actually be worth a couple of hundred dollars. Apparently the guy who wanted to pick it up on Saturday was an antique collector, but the woman said she just felt better about giving it to someone who really wanted it.

So here it is! It doesn't necessarily "fit" our living room, but I absolutely love it. :)

This is Matt holding Ginny so she wouldn't get in the picture with the chair... but I got their picture anyway. :)

So there! It was a fun day for me because I'm really excited about this rocking chair! Just thought I'd share. :)

New Favorite

2011-08-09T17:03:00.003-05:00

One of my new favorites is jazz artist, Esperanza Spalding. She won a grammy for "Best New Artist" this year. I had never heard of her until then. We just bought her album on iTunes and its fantastic! Check her out... :)

Moon River

2011-08-09T16:40:00.001-05:00

I stumbled across this video today and LOVED it!

Close the Door

2011-08-04T18:01:00.002-05:00

Ginny knows how to close the door... :)

Two weekends ago I was home by myself for a little while. I was cleaning the apartment so I was walking back and forth from the bedroom to the living room to the kitchen, etc. Ginny doesn't like to be left alone, so every time I would leave the room, she'd get up and follow me. I could tell she was getting irritated because we'd get to a different room and she'd plop herself on the ground and huff at me. (i tried telling her that i'd be right back, but she wouldn't listen!) After quite a while of the "back and forth" I was cleaning in our closet and I heard a door slam. It scared me half to death! I walked around the corner and noticed that the door was closed to our second bedroom. I opened the door slowly and looked in and Ginny was in her crate! I guess she got tired of following me around so she went into "her" bedroom, shut the door, and got in her crate! I had TEARS I was laughing so hard... silly dog.

Coming Up

2011-08-03T21:35:00.002-05:00

We have a few things coming up. The biggest one, I think, is school starting back up! Things will be pretty busy after that point, I'm sure. Later this month, we are going to a vineyard not too far from here for a grape stomp! I think my parents will be joining us for that. I can't wait! We are also planning to do something with Matt's side of the family Labor Day weekend, but I haven't heard for sure what that will be yet. Probably something "blog worthy" though. In September we're planning on going to a Rangers game! We haven't been to a game yet this season, so we're pretty excited about that possibility. Then, still a couple months away, we will celebrate our 2nd anniversary in November! Seems pretty far off, but I know it will be here in a hurry! Anyway, those are some of the things I thought of off the top of my head that we have coming up. I'll TRY to keep up with the blog more often. :)

Family Portraits

2011-08-03T21:28:00.002-05:00

I can consider these family portraits, right? Matt has his Rangers shirt on, I have my Mavs shirt on, and we've got a sweet dog! Sounds good to me! :)

I asked my mom to TRY to take a couple of pictures of us with Ginny. I figured it'd be nearly impossible to get her to cooperate, but she was PERFECT! Mom took a whole bunch in hopes of getting a couple of good ones, but when we flipped through them, Ginny almost seemed to be posing in most of them. She was more cooperative than Matt in some of them... :)

Good job, mom!

MISC

2011-08-03T21:14:00.003-05:00

We got Ginny some new toys. She got a new pig (that oinks) and a new bone (that squeaks). WHAT WERE WE THINKING?! She LOVES them. This picture is from the day she got them, and she had to have BOTH of them with her at ALL times. Silly dog...

I'm not really sure when this picture was taken, but this is a common occurrence. It is possible that I've already posted this picture in the past... but it still makes me laugh! She is so goofy!

Carly sent me this picture of Jonathan... he knows he is up to no good!!

We went to Matt's parents house for the 4th of July weekend. We enjoyed relaxing and taking it easy! Except for Matt... he had to work on a paper for a class part of the weekend. Luckily he still had some time to relax. Unfortunately, he got sick the night before we were set to drive back to Austin. I don't think I've ever seen him that sick... :( it was no good!

Ginny enjoyed hanging out in the yard that weekend. I can't wait until we can have a house with a yard for her. She does great inside, but its so nice to let her run around and play in a yard all day! In this picture she is hanging out with her buddy, Dixie.

Not much has been going on with us, really! My new job is going well. Things are starting to pick up some since school is starting back up soon. I know I'll be more busy when school starts, but I'm looking forward to it. Some days I have a whole lot of work to do, and others I have NOTHING. Time just crawls when there isn't anything for me to do, so I'm looking forward to keeping busy!

Solomon

2011-08-03T21:11:00.002-05:00

As all of you know by now, we have a sweet new nephew, Solomon! He is SO cute! I can't wait to see him again! This was just a few days after he was born...

Such a sweet boy! Matt and I are loving all of these nephews! :)

New Bike

2011-06-18T18:57:00.001-05:00

I got a new bike! I've been pestering Matt about getting me one for a while now. It is a metallic purple color. Its preeeeety. :)

Ginny Found the Frog

2011-06-18T18:33:00.004-05:00

Remember my plant that I was working so hard on to keep it alive?

Well, Ginny destroyed it today. I couldn't figure out WHY she did it... she has been out on the patio with it several times and has never shown any interest in it. I was not happy with her...

After I brought her inside I saw this little guy jump out from behind the rocking chair.

Apparently Ginny found the frog that has been living in the plant. I checked him out and he is fine, so apparently she didn't get him. I guess that was the last we'll be seeing of Mr. Frog unless we get a new plant soon. Even then, he may be traumatized and just find another plant to live in. ;) We'll see!

Blog

2011-06-18T17:43:00.002-05:00

I know I haven't been on in a while. It seems to be my pattern to blog regularly for a couple of weeks, then go a really long time without blogging at all! Sorry! Things have been pretty hectic since I started my new job. I have really enjoyed my new job so far. It is going to take longer than I expected to really get into the swing of things, but I think there are some really good opportunities for me there. It is nice being up there with Matt, too. We get to have lunch together and can usually fit in a few games of ping pong during our lunch break. I might add that I was the "Ping Pong Champion of the Week" last week. :) Anyway, as things come up, I promise to blog some! Honestly, there just hasn't been much going on worth blogging about! Don't give up on me! :)

Dairy

2011-06-18T17:28:00.003-05:00

We went to a dairy about an hour and a half from Austin. Here are a few pictures from the day!

Jonathan decided that he wanted to drive the golf cart!

Matt and Jonathan on the hay ride...

Matt milking a cow...

My turn! :)

Keith (AKA Pops), Jonathan and Matt...

We got to bottle feed the calves...

Josh and Jonathan petting the bunny...

Jonathan petting the goat...

Feeding the goats...

Notice Anything?

2011-05-30T12:19:00.004-05:00

Renee, Matt's mom, brought me a plant last weekend. Matt started making jokes about how she was killing it by giving it to me... I've only had a couple of plants before and I always forget to water them. I was DETERMINED to keep this one alive and I did NOT forget to water it... but I think I OVER watered it. :( It looks pretty sad. We were out of town this weekend so it didn't get watered at all, but the soil was still pretty moist when I went out to check on it this morning. While I was out there, I noticed that something looked kind of funny... notice anything?

What about now?

Let's look a little closer...

Yep! There is a frog camping out in my plant! He's a cute little guy... :)

Ginny hasn't discovered the frog yet... and hopefully she won't. :)

Locust

2011-05-21T14:52:00.001-05:00

Matt was taking the trash out this morning and saw this on the sidewalk. He ran back in looking for the camera and caught a couple of pictures... it was pretty cool!

Furniture

2011-05-21T14:44:00.003-05:00

Here are a couple of pictures of our new furniture! Some of them are kind of dark... I haven't installed my photo editing programs on our new computer yet, so you'll just have to take these "as is". :)

This is our love seat, although it is just as long as our couch. It is a LITTLE shorter, but it is still pretty huge. Both sides recline and rock, then there are two cup holders and a little compartment in the middle console. We said over and over and OVER again that when we got new furniture, Ginny would NOT be allowed up on it. We gave in to that on about the 2nd day. We HAVE stuck with the "rules" of when she can be up there though and she has done real well with that. We usually put her bed up on the love seat and she lays on that. Sometimes we will spread a blanket out and she can lay on that... so she still can't lay DIRECTLY on the couch, but we gave in still... :)

She wanted in on the photo shoot of the furniture, I guess... :)

Here is our couch. It reclines on both ends as well.

Just another shot of the love seat...

We have really enjoyed it so far! It is really comfortable. So I know these pictures have been a long time comin, but there ya go! :)

Job

2011-05-06T09:08:00.003-05:00

Yay! Ok, let me tell you all a little bit about my new job! I am going to be working at Austin Grad, with Matt! I will be on the other side of the building, so I won't have to see him all the time. ;-) I'll be the "Assistant Registrar". Austin Grad is making several changes and people are kind of moving around some and taking on new responsibilities, so it is going to be a big transition for everyone. I will basically be doing most of the responsibilities of a registrar under the supervision of the CURRENT registrar while she moves her focus a little more toward recruiting. Matt has told me this before, and I was reminded again in my meeting with them yesterday that nobody has just ONE job... they all wear a lot of different hats. I will start in about a week and work until 2pm for a couple of weeks to allow me to still drive to Lakeway and watch the kids until the end of the month, then start full time at Austin Grad. I'm really excited about the job, and it seems like there could be a lot of cool opportunities for both of us at Austin Grad in the future!

Pictures of Ginny

2011-05-04T11:27:00.002-05:00

I just pulled a bunch of pictures off of my phone, and OF COURSE they are all of Ginny... :) So I thought I'd share...

Matt carrying Ginny to bed last night... lol

She does this a LOT lately! We will notice that she isn't in the room with us so we will walk back to the bedroom and find this. If there is any good in this, it is that we have gotten better about making the bed in the mornings (or at least somewhat making it, lol) so that we don't have dog hairs on our pillows and sheets when we go to bed! :)

This was in Gainesville last weekend. Ginny was outside and it was cold and rainy. My parents keep the chair cushions in this tub and somehow Ginny got the lid off then got inside of it! She was curled up asleep in it a couple of minutes before this picture! Silly dog...

Look at those sweet eyes... :)

This is so bad... most mornings I will sit on the couch and put the recliner up with a blanket over my lap. Ginny will get up on the recliner part and curl up in my lap, basically, and sit with me. Matt says, "that is so ridiculous." Haha! :) She sure is sweet though... my 60lb lap dog.

She was rolling around on the floor the other day then just froze like this...

My cuddly lap dog again... :) Matt and I have determined that he is the PLAY person. He will ask Ginny, "Do you want to play?" and she will FLIP OUT! She LOVES playing with him (and most of the time, not so much with me) and I am the CUDDLE person. Matt will pet her and love on her but he is not as interested in having her sit in his lap, teehee. :) So she knows to come to me for this kind of lovin! ;-)

I'm Still Here!

2011-05-04T11:03:00.002-05:00

A few weeks ago while I was using our laptop, the charger caught on fire! (don't worry - just a small flame, lol) It immediately shut down our computer and I thought I had lost it for good. Luckily it came back on so we could back up our files, but it wouldn't let us use the internet or anything like that. SO, my excuse for not blogging in a while is that we haven't had a working computer! We just got a new laptop this week so I will try to catch up on some things.

I haven't moved our files over to the new computer yet, so I'll have to post pictures later, but here are some quick updates on what all has been going on here! We got new furniture! We FINALLY finished dealing with the insurance company with our wreck stuff (just a week or two before the one year anniversary - which was yesterday, I think!) so we were able to use some of that money to get the furniture. We got a cozy reclining couch and love seat. We LOVE it! I'll post pictures of it soon.

I also, as sad as I am to say it, started slacking big time on my weight loss stuff. I hurt my knee in my second week of my workouts and quit for a few days until it started feeling better. It started feeling better from THAT injury, then I hurt it again. It got better after THAT one, but then I had kind of lost motivation and gotten out of my routine. I need to get started again!

I went an Orthopedic specialist to have my knee checked out. It bothers me quite a bit and has been that way for a while so I decided to just have it checked out. I had an MRI and went back earlier this week to see the results. My ACL (that I had surgery to repair 10 years ago) has stretched out some, I have a tear in my meniscus and a "significant amount of arthritis considering my age." The ACL is not really a big deal, it just means that my right knee "moves" a little more than the other. The meniscus tear seems to be pretty small, so it isn't anything too major. The doctor said the arthritis is probably what causes most of the pain. They could do a minor surgery to "clean things out" but he said it probably wouldn't make that big of a difference right now. I'm just going to wait it out... he said if the pain gets worse, more frequent, or if it starts swelling quite a bit then we would want to do the surgery. For now I'll just deal with it though. :)

I am also going to start a new job soon! My job working with the kids after school is coming to an end and I will be starting my new job in the next couple of weeks. I have a meeting with them tomorrow morning, so after that I will give all the details. I'm sure it would be fine to give them now since only a few people read my blog, but TECHNICALLY I haven't been OFFICIALLY offered the job yet... but check back tomorrow and I'll let you know all the details! I'm really excited about it!

Well, that is all I can think of right now... I know I've thought of several things to share in the last couple of weeks, so I may think of more later, but for now THAT'S ALL FOLKS!

Matt's Sermon

2011-04-05T11:20:00.003-05:00

Check out the link below to listen to Matt's sermon! He was asked to preach at another church in the area while some of their ministers were out. He says it is good to listen to if you are having trouble sleeping... ;-) http://www.brentwoodoaks.org/content/sermons

I Aint Gonna Pee Pee My Bed Tonight

2011-04-03T21:45:00.005-05:00

I love watching the Ellen show, and the other day she played this video and I thought it was absolutely hilarious! Watch out, though... it will get stuck in your head. ;-)

Progress

2011-03-28T07:49:00.002-06:00

Well, after only 5 days I lost nearly 3 pounds! Awesome, huh? Then I ate nearly an entire pizza, and a big burger with fries, and a giant burrito this weekend and I am back to my weight from day 2. BUT... (there is some positive in that) I now know that I can do this! I just have to stick with it! Last week was with very little working out (just a little each day) so if I up my workouts a little, and try not to blow it over the weekend, I can definitely do this!! :)

Laugh for Today

2011-03-25T12:22:00.001-06:00

This video cracked me up!!

Matt's Blog

2011-03-25T12:11:00.001-06:00

Check out Matt's blog for two new posts! (a link is on the right side of the page)

Weight Loss Plan

2011-03-23T08:52:00.005-06:00

Ok... I don't have any "official" plan here, but I am trying to do several things to slowly make a change in my habits. I am not doing a "super fast" plan where I am going to drop a ton of weight in a hurry, but rather, trying to change some bad habits and become more aware of my health and try to make better decisions. I thought I'd share some of the things I am doing.

1. Drinking a ton of water. This sounds easy, but there were times yesterday when the thought of water made me feel sick. Drinking the "suggested" amount of water each day can really help you to lose weight! (8 cups a day is suggested) Our bodies store up water, which makes you weigh more, but if you start providing your body with enough water each day, it will let go of the stored water and just trust you to provide it with what it needs! Kind of cool. It is hard the first couple of days because you're constantly going to the bathroom, but that will stop soon and you'll get back into a "regular" schedule.

2. Counting calories. I don't want to get too overwhelmed with this one, but I'm watching it for now just to become more aware of what I'm eating. According to my research, I should have 1200-1400 calories a day if I want to lose some weight. I had a burger from Chili's last night that was a meat patty, swiss cheese and avocados on a wheat bun and it was 1520 calories.* Yeah. I picked that because I thought it might be a slightly healthier pick than some of the other things that sounded good. Now, ultimately, I want to be able to eat whatever I feel like, in moderation, and keep the fat off by working out and being more active, but it is nice to be more aware of what I am eating. I went to the store and loaded up on low calorie snacks to eat throughout the day, which leads to my next point...

3. Small snacks throughout the day. I have breakfast, late morning snack, lunch, afternoon snack (maybe 2) and dinner. Eating snacks throughout the day helps boost your metabolism and helps burn more calories! I have sliced cheddar cheese and wheat crackers, baby dill pickles, low fat yogurt, cottage cheese, olives, fruit, applesauce, pretzels, etc. I know there are a lot of different kinds of "100 calorie packs" at the store with different snacks, too.

4. Exercising. This is the tough one for me. I absolutely hate working out. I love playing sports, games, competitions, you name it. But I absolutely despise walking on a treadmill or lifting weights or whatever. It is so boring to me. Not to mention, I have so much trouble with my knees and back that a lot of workouts become very painful for me and make me sore for days (not the good kind of sore). So, as you can see, working out has always been the place where my "weight loss" hits the wall. I started doing some research on exercises that were low impact on the back and knees and found several things. I still have to go to the workout room to use the stationary bike which is pretty boring, but I guess I can make it work, and that is very low impact on my knees. I also got an exercise ball. I couldn't imagine many things to do with that ball that would be helpful but I have found tons of things! It is TOUGH but so far I haven't had any pain in my knees or back as a result of those exercises.

5. Keep moving. This one kind of goes along with the last one, in a way. According to this website I burn approximately 1620 calories in a day just by sitting, breathing, doing normal things. There are some EASY things you can do to burn a few extra calories throughout the day. For example, standing burns more calories than sitting. Walk a little more, clean the house, stand up and stretch occasionally. EASY THINGS. I am the worst about sitting down in front of the tv or computer and just camping out there until I have to get up and do something. The worst. I'm trying to change that by getting up every few minutes (if I must watch a tv show or be on the computer, lol) and playing with the dog, or walking around for a little bit or just doing something. I'm sure Matt would say that just cleaning the apartment every day would suffice. :)

6. My Fitness Pal. I'm using this website to keep a food and exercise log, keep track of my weight and calories consumed and burned yada yada. There is also an app for your iphone (or itouch in my case) you can use. It seemed like way too much work to keep track of all of that at first, but I think I'm going to try it! I've done it so far today and it has been pretty neat. Check it out if you want!

So that is what I'm doing now. I don't expect major results overnight, but hopefully these new habits will result in a healthier me! :)

*Chili's provides nutritional information for all of their menu items on their website. Check it out - I bet it will surprise you!

Motivation

2011-03-21T18:01:00.005-06:00

THIS is my motivation...

When I came across this picture after our trip to the lake I had to do a double take. Is that really me? Yep... that is me. A me that weighs 20lbs too much!

This is not the first time I have realized that I need to get into shape and lose some weight. In fact, I've been saying this for quite some time now. A few years, actually. It's time to actually do something about it! So... I'm not sure exactly how I'm going to document this journey, but I decided to make it public so people know and won't let me give up this time!

I may give an update every couple of days, or maybe just on a week to week basis. We'll see. Consider this my official announcement that I AM GOING TO LOSE WEIGHT AND BE IN BETTER SHAPE! Words of encouragment I'm sure will always be appreciated. ;-)

Wannabe Lap Dog

2011-03-19T15:01:00.001-06:00

Ginny REALLY wanted to sit up in the chair with Matt...

There was definitely not enough room for her, but she tried anyway!

But she couldn't quite get it figured out. :)

Such a silly dog.... ;-)

Day "Camping"

2011-03-18T17:23:00.008-06:00

Today we went out to a park/campsite on Lake Travis in Austin. We packed some sandwiches and drinks and headed out there around lunch and unloaded at one of the campsites. We had never taken Ginny "out" like that before, so we were both a little unsure of how she would behave. She was GREAT! I think she had a blast! Here are several pictures we took today...

When we first got there we just set up our chairs and relaxed and had sandwiches and root beer! (A cute old man suggested I try this certain kind of root beer when I was at the store, and I just couldn't resist his charm. :))

Ginny was so calm and just walked around checking things out! We had a long leash extension that we tied to the picnic table so she could walk around some.

She was very alert to all the noises and bugs, but never took off after any of them!

She even got a new bone!

After lunch, Matt decided to take a nap...

...but Ginny didn't like that idea very much, so she woke him up.

We all decided to take a short hike on the trail down to the lake.

We took her down to the water and she wasn't sure at first...

...but then she decided that she LOVED it!

She never got in real deep, but she got in up to her belly. She kept biting at the water and sticking her whole nose under when the waves would come up. She just ran back and forth as far as that long leash would allow! She absolutely loved it!

We went back to the campsite to let her dry off some (we weren't planning on her going for a swim, so we weren't prepared with towels!) We were all pretty tired so we headed back home as soon as she was dry. We had a really good time and were pleased with how well behaved she was! Hopefully we can do it a few more times throughout the summer!

Matt Porter - I Don't Need No Doctor

2011-03-15T10:44:00.002-06:00

Yay! I finally got it! :) Check it out...

Pictures

2011-03-09T10:11:00.003-06:00

Someone got a couple of pictures of Matt from the UACL event at church a couple of weeks ago so I thought I'd share one! I haven't gotten a video yet of his other songs, but I'll get on that... I'll see if I can convince him to do one tonight. :)

This past week I worked up at Austin Grad with Matt filling in for the receptionist there while she was out with some family issues. Ginny wasn't happy with me because that meant she had to stay in the crate for a lot longer on those days. This was before I left the first day.

We had breakfast burritos the other night and Ginny REALLY wanted Matt to share... :)

Just taking it easy.... ;-)

In Ginny's obedience classes, they stuff her full of treats. We looked up some healthier alternatives for dog snacks so she wouldn't get too fat (the vet already says she is a little overweight!) and we found that a lot of dogs like carrots. She wouldn't touch them for a few days, but now she loves them. This was the first time I gave her some and she was NOT interested!!

I'm not sure when this picture was taken, but I just found it on my phone. She doesn't get to do this very much anymore. We are hoping to get new furniture in the next few months so we've been trying to break this habit. She has done really well with it and rarely tries to get up on the couch anymore unless you call her up.

That's about it for now! :)

Jonathan's Birthday

2011-03-08T10:24:00.003-06:00

This cute little guy turned 1 on Friday! We went to Waco on Saturday for his birthday party. Josh actually decorated the cake and looked a little irritated when Jonathan didn't even want to touch it. ;-) Carly started sticking fruit loops on the cake and he would grab those and eat them, but wasn't too interested in the cake, haha!

He is such a sweet boy and has the SWEETEST little grin! I can't believe he is already a year old! Now, we have Judah's birthday next month (3), Elijah's birthday in May (7), Brad and Nova's little boy in July and a niece coming sometime (hopefully sooner than later). We are loving it. :)

UACL

2011-02-26T21:01:00.002-06:00

UACL stands for University Avenue City Limits. This is a banquet that our church family (University Ave church) held tonight. It was just a fun event and a few members were asked to perform and show off their musical abilities. Matt was one of them! :) He did a really good job and everyone really loved it. I think he surprised a few people. :) One woman said, "Matt Porter... that is a good name for a white guy with soul!" Hahaha! I'm not sure exactly what that means, but Matt liked it. ;-) I had plans to tape him AT the event, but we had some people around us who were pretty loud and I know the video wouldn't have turned out. I convinced him to let me record him doing ONE of the songs when we got back home tonight. (Don't worry... I'll work on the others later!) He sang I Don't Need No Doctor by Ray Charles, Superstition by Stevie Wonder and played Misty on his trombone.

This video is him singing Superstition...

Ginny's Pokes

2011-02-25T08:58:00.003-06:00

Ginny does this really annoying thing where she will come up to you and poke you with her nose. She will do it over and over sometimes and she doesn't always just TOUCH you with her nose... she will really poke you hard sometimes! It drives us absolutely crazy. Yesterday I got online and typed in "why does my dog poke me all the time" and one of the first things that came up was a message board titled "My Catahoula pokes me all the time - anyone else have that problem with Catahoulas?" I opened it up and it had tons of people commenting that their Catahoulas do the same thing. I couldn't help but laugh! I guess it is something with that breed. That doesn't make it any less annoying though. :)

Matt

2011-02-23T11:25:00.002-06:00

Matt has actually posted a few things on his blog lately! I'm impressed! ;-) Check it out!

http://charis-humin.blogspot.com/

Ginny's Class

2011-02-21T10:26:00.003-06:00

Well we survived Ginny's first day of school.... ;-)

She was such a mess. She NEVER barks in our apartment but she barked nearly the entire time in class because she wanted to get over to the other dogs in class. At one point the teacher looked at us and said, "Umm... can you do something to calm her down?" *sigh* We went over the basics like sit, down, stay and she did all of them perfectly. We learned a couple of new things and she picked them up almost immediately. The teacher told us, "She is really smart!" Well.... we know, but she is also stubborn, hyper and easily distracted! The teacher told us that she should learn how to "focus" in this class and that she still thinks the class will benefit us. Let's hope so!

One week down.... five more to go. :)

Ginny's First Day of School

2011-02-19T10:23:00.002-06:00

Ginny starts school today! Matt and I are excited AND nervous about it! She is so sweet, but she gets so distracted and excited around other dogs. We're really hoping being in this class with other dogs will help.

(as you'll see at the end of this video, one of the "bad habits" she has developed is jumping on people... she is WAY too big to be doing that!!)

Matt's Blog

2011-02-18T14:42:00.002-06:00

*gasp*

Matt posted on his blog! ;-)

http://charis-humin.blogspot.com/

What's Going On?

2011-02-17T09:04:00.003-06:00

I know I haven't posted much lately! I'll update you all on a few things going on around here!

First of all, I am so excited about having a new niece AND a new nephew in the next several months! Matt and I have three pictures up in our hallway... one of Elijah, one of Judah and one of Jonathan (who is turning 1 in a couple of weeks!) We were just saying that we're going to have to buy some more frames! :)

In other news, Ginny starts school on Saturday! She is such a sweet dog and so smart... but she has developed some bad habits lately! We are hopeful that the class will do her some good. Her main thing is that she is SO easily distracted, especially around other dogs. She is SO playful and wants to play with every dog she sees and she gets so hyper that it is sometimes hard to control her. So anyway, she starts school on Saturday and will go for 6 weeks.

Matt and I have the opportunity to do some cool stuff with a couple of students at UT coming up. We met a guy who just started at UT this semester and he sought us out at church one night looking for some people to keep him accountable. We had him over for dinner and he is a very sweet, intellegent, Christian man. Matt and I are going to start going downtown near UT's campus (and near our church's building) and doing some kind of study with him once a week. When we first mentioned that idea he got really excited and asked if he could bring some friends. These are guys who face (or will face) a lot of temptations being in the situations they are in, so hopefully Matt and I can make a difference. Be praying for this!

Remember that wreck we were in almost 10 months ago? Well we are getting close to being COMPLETELY done dealing with the insurance company about all of that. It has really been a pain in the butt (and the foot!) and we'll be happy to be done with it. Hopefully that will all be resolved in the next couple of days.

We have an event coming up at church that Matt is going to be playing and singing at. He is doing some awesome songs and I've already convinced him to let me record them to share with everyone. ;-) The event is next weekend so be on the lookout for some videos in the next week or two!

Well there is a quick "catch up" for you! I'll try to get pictures of Ginny's first day of school and Matt's videos up soon.

Michael Young - Rangers

2011-02-12T10:01:00.002-06:00

This is too funny... and kind of sad and cute. :) Michael Young has requested a trade from the Rangers and that has been the big news lately. Watch this reaction from a 3 year old...

Snow!

2011-02-04T10:08:00.005-06:00

We have heard from everyone in north Texas about all the snow they've been having, but we didn't get any until last night/this morning! We didn't get a lot of snow, but it was enough to go play in. :) We weren't sure how Ginny would react, but she loved it! Our camera battery died after just a couple of pictures so most of these are from our phones... enjoy! :)

It wasn't really snowing when we were out there... :) I just enjoyed throwing handfulls of snow in the air!

She didn't want to sit still! She wanted to check everything out!

She started running in circles as fast as she could! It was hilarious... she was having a blast!

Matt got a quick video of her playing...

This was not long after we got back... she wore herself out!

I think we are done with the snow, but they expect some of it to melt today, then to freeze tonight. So it sounds like we'll have lots of ice tomorrow. :-/

Stay warm everyone! :)

Ginny & New Song

2011-01-18T09:09:00.004-06:00

I know I haven't posted in a while.... we haven't had too many exciting things happening around here! Things are just now really starting to slow down since the holidays and all of the traveling. Since I don't have anything really interesting to share, I'll post a few random pictures and a song/video for you!

It got pretty cold around here for a couple of days. Ginny has never liked having a blanket over her, but she didn't seem to mind on those cold days!

One night, after I asked her if she was ready to go to bed, I walked into the bedroom and found this...

Too bad she picked the wrong bed... she likes to try to sneak back to the bedroom sometimes and get up on our bed. Bad dog.... :)

Ok, now a new song! This is JJ Heller's new song What Love Really Means.

Christmas

2010-12-29T12:33:00.002-06:00

I hope everyone had a great Christmas! We sure did! We have had four Christmas gatherings so far (including our own) and we still have one more to go this weekend. I love Christmas but it sure can be exhausting! Ginny came with us this past weekend and although she was pretty well behaved, she wouldn't stop singing Christmas carols in the back seat of the car....

Silly dog! :) I hope everyone has a wonderful New Years Day coming up. I think I'm officially an old woman because I have NO interest in staying up until midnight! I've gotten into my routine and I'm perfectly happy being in bed by 10:00pm. :) We'll see....

25 Days of Christmas Songs - Day 25

2010-12-22T21:21:00.003-06:00

Merry Christmas! Without further adieu (after many failed attempts, mess ups, camera, uploading and sound issues) we present to you:

Matt & Lauren - Baby It's Cold Outside

Well, I guess there were still parts that we failed to do correctly, missed notes, and sound issues, but Merry Christmas anyway! :)

25 Days of Christmas Songs - Day 24

2010-12-22T21:06:00.003-06:00

Bing Crosby - White Christmas

Merry Christmas Eve! Don't forget the milk and cookies! :)

25 Days of Christmas Songs - Day 23

2010-12-22T21:04:00.002-06:00

A Charlie Brown Christmas - Christmas Time Is Here

25 Days of Christmas Songs - Day 22

2010-12-22T15:50:00.001-06:00

Bing Crosby & Carol Richards - Silver Bells

25 Days of Christmas Songs - Day 21

2010-12-21T19:11:00.002-06:00

Chris Rice - Welcome to Our World
(I don't know why, but none of the videos on YouTube have the LAST note/word of the song... sorry!)

25 Days of Christmas Songs - Day 20

2010-12-16T15:27:00.002-06:00

Jackson 5 - Santa Claus Is Coming To Town

25 Days of Christmas Songs - Day 19

2010-12-15T11:53:00.002-06:00

Brad Paisley - What Child Is This

25 Days of Christmas Songs - Day 18

2010-12-15T11:52:00.002-06:00

I haven't forgotten about today's song! We went out of town yesterday to spend Christmas with Matt's grandpa and we just got back in. Here ya go! :)

Sara Bareilles - River

25 Days of Christmas Songs - Day 17

2010-12-15T11:51:00.002-06:00

Louis Armstrong – Zat You, Santa Claus?