Meet Ginny!

We would like to introduce you to our new dog, Ginny! Any of you who know me will believe me when I tell you that I have been asking for a dog every day since we got married. Our plans all along were to wait until around December when we could move into a bigger apartment. So October is close enough. :) I did good to wait this long... although there were a lot of days I begged and pouted. :) So let me tell you a little bit about Ginny...


She is a Catahoula Leopard dog. She weighs about 40 lbs and is full grown at around a year old.

We got her from a family that found her and has been taking care of her. They have three or four other dogs and just couldn't keep her. They brought her over to visit last night and we just fell in love with her!

She is spayed, microchipped, up to date on shots, crate trained, house trained, knows basic commands like "sit" and "down" and of course "NO!" :) She is very well mannered and seems to be a really quick learner. She loves to have her belly rubbed! :)

She needs to work on walking on a leash and staying off the furniture! She has only tried to get up on the furniture a couple of times but definitely understands when we tell her to get down.

For some reason she absolutely hates if you "buzz" like a bee. We will have to use this wisely because she REALLY hates it! It can be a very effective training tool though!

She still isn't TOO sure about where she is, but she already seems to be warming up. She loves hollow bones stuffed with peanut butter! We gave her one tonight while we were eating and she never even tried to mess with our food.

The family we got her from was very nice and it was obvious they loved her! They were sad to see her go and shed a few tears before leaving her with us but before leaving the woman said, "I'm glad she is going to make someone else very happy." The family wasn't looking for money for her, they just wanted to be sure she was going to a good home. We ended up getting her, her crate, two dog beds (giant pillows), a collar and leash and her favorite toys and bones from her last home.

We are already crazy about her! We know it is probably going to be very difficult for a while getting her used to her new home and continuing with her training, but we're looking forward to it! Here is a short video of her:

I can guarantee there will be more pictures soon! :)

LISTEN UP!

Unfortunately I don't think I have a huge blog following to really effectively spread the word, but I'm going to try anyway!

You MUST (no exceptions) go to Jason and Summer's blog! THIS MONTH ONLY all of the proceeds from their t-shirt fundraiser go directly toward their adoption! There will also be FREE GIVEAWAYS throughout the month! Check out their blog to find out how to get your name in the drawings. (posting this information on your blog is just ONE way to get your name entered!) Not to mention that if you go to their blog you will see a really cute picture of their family in their Go. Seek. Love t-shirts! :) SO DO IT!

http://coxragamuffins.blogspot.com/

Matt

GASP! Matt put up a new post on his blog! ;-) Check it out!
(the link is on the right side of the page)

Sara Bareilles

Sunday night Matt and I are going to see Sara Bareilles in concert! I have seen her before with my mom but Matt has never seen her live. I am SO. EXCITED. She is so good live! I think I can safely say she is my FAVORITE female artist... and I might be a little jealous of her talent. ;-) Here are a couple of videos of her singing some of her new songs from her new album (which just came out a couple of weeks ago and is AWESOME.... buy it! You won't regret it!)

This is the awesome "intro" from her new CD called "Kaleidoscope Heart"



This is her song "Uncharted". I think it is my favorite from her new CD:



This is her current single "King of Anything"



This one won't make a lot of sense to some of you. This is a cover of the song "Single Ladies" which is a Beyonce song (R&B). It is a COMPLETELY different version, but I think it is kind of fun what Sara did with it. I think it is pretty funny. :)



If you're interested in comparing, click the link below to see Beyonce's version.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4m1EFMoRFvY


So, needless to say, I'm excited about the concert. :)

A Few Random Things

I realized I had a few random things to share! :)

First of all, I got all dressed and ready for church yesterday and FOR SOME REASON.... Matt made me change. I just don't know why.



Secondly, this stuff is SO GOOD! It has the pouches that you just add to a pitcher of water and it is delicious. We get these a lot... usually fruit punch or peach tea, but this one is my new favorite! It is "Crystal Light Green Tea Raspberry"


Lastly, a couple weekends ago Matt and I decided we were going to go camping! It was kind of a last minute decision but we DID check the weather! We got all packed up and had to stop by Wal-Mart to get a few things before we left and when we came out of Wal-Mart the sky was nearly black. The campsites we were going to are only about 10 minutes from our apartment. We heard that it was supposed to pass pretty quickly so we went ahead and drove out there and "wait it out". Not 5 minutes after we got to the campgrounds it started POURING! And it KEPT pouring.... and kept pouring.... :( We sat in the car for a while but finally decided that even if it stopped raining soon, the ground would be so wet that it would be miserable trying to set things up. So we went back home!

This was when we were still pretty excited about camping...

This was when it was STILL pouring down rain and I had just gotten bit by about 6 monster mosquitoes...

Matt needed to go to the bathroom but it was completely dark inside. I got out for less than a minute to give him the lantern and I got bit by all the mosquitoes. They were SWARMING under that cover near the bathrooms. Matt had several bites too, but he doesn't react like I do to them. I was caking on the anti-itch cream!

So our first attempted camping trip was a flop. We're excited to try again when the weather is nicer.

SPEAKING OF WHICH, I don't know about everywhere else but we walked outside last night to some temperatures in the 50's! Boy, was that a nice surprise! Currently it is 62 here. I LOVE this weather! :)

Carmina Burana - Our Experience

On Saturday night Matt and I went to the ballet! We thought it would be fun to do something a little different, and it was! Ballet Austin put on a performance of Carmina Burana. It was a collaboration between Ballet Austin, the Grammy nominated choir Conspirare (based in Austin) and The Austin Symphony Orchestra. It was a really neat experience and I'm really glad we went. Neither one of us cared too much for the ballet part of it, but the music was pretty cool! The choir was AMAZING! On our way home we summarized it in two different ways. Matt said there were boring parts, but most of it was really good. I said most of it was boring but the parts that were good were REALLY good. :) Matt understood the music a lot more than I did, so he found that to be a lot more entertaining.

We figured we should dress up a little for the event. I, however, have been wearing tennis shoes ONLY since my surgery! So we did something that I HATE doing.... we went shoe shopping. I wanted some cheap and comfortable shoes. I didn't really care too much what they looked like. We were in Target and were worn out and ready to go home when we finally found the perfect pair!! Or so we thought....


They were cheap, and when I tried them on the store and walked around in them, they were comfortable. BUT OF COURSE, not five minutes after leaving the apartment they started rubbing my heels. Before we even made it out of the parking garage at the event I felt each one literally CUT my heel. After checking with Matt to make sure I wasn't going to embarrass him, I popped those shoes off and walked barefoot for the rest of the evening. This was the end result...

It was worth the dirty feet. Walking barefoot took a bit of a toll on my feet as well, but it was MUCH better than the shoes! Here we are just before we left the apartment...

I think this is SUCH a cute picture of Matt. :)

Before the ballet started they were advertising the Nutcracker this Christmas. I mentioned to Matt that it might be fun to go to. After the show he asked me again and I said "NO WAY!" Haha! We had a good time and really enjoyed the music... but I just couldn't stand the ballet part of it. I know it is difficult and takes a lot of hard work and skill but it just isn't entertaining to me. There were PARTS of the performance that were really impressive.

Let me tell you up front, this video is over an hour long and I certainly don't expect ANYONE to watch it all! :) The music doesn't start until a little over a minute into it, but watch the first part of it. You'll probably recognize the music from a lot of movie scenes! Listen to the orchestra and the choir and how powerful it sounds! This movement was, in my opinion, definitely the coolest!

Carmina Burana

Our Saturday night plans.... so excited!!