A very productive weekend...

Well, I actually lived up to my to-do list this weekend! Got ALL gifts finalized. Got all gifts that can be wrapped - wrapped. Returned purchases, bought a few more things - done! Also snuck in a few personal gifts for little ol' me.

So, Saturday we started slow, but I got my errands done. Then, B and I decided to have our own Christmas b/c we have a friend visiting this week, and there's no point lugging our own gifts to his parent's house. We went to Sullivan's, came home, started a fire and opened gifts. It's actually hilarious - I bought him a new wallet, a book he's been wanting to read, a cookbook and some slippers. He bought me pajamas (with matching slippers), 2 books and a wallet! I love all of them and it's too funny how we essentially got each other the same things.

Today we got up and went for a run/walk, took Ellie to the park, washed our sheets, moved our bed around, organized my closet, organized my bathroom drawers, returned a few more things and went to the grocery store! I was supposed to just relax today - but I feel very relaxed now after I got all that done!

Looking forward to a week with little to no errands after work (when traffic is miserable) and the beginning of our holidays with family!

Here's some pics of our tree (and Mark Zuckerberg, I guess)...

And this adorable shot made our Christmas card - she's just waiting for Santa...

Happy Holidays!!!

Sleigh bells ring...are you listening?

So, I guess Christmas isn't really here until I decorate my blog. Of course, my house has been decorated for 3 weeks already. I'll post pics soon. We got a really cute Christmas card pic of Ellie - she's always the star of our card.

Anyway - it's a busy time of year. I drive myself crazy buying gifts, worrying about gifts, buying things and returning, searching for coupon codes, trying to get free shipping. It's an ordeal. This year, I am mostly done at this point - only have a handful of things left to buy/do. My plan is to do it all tomorrow, and rest Sunday-Christmas!

We'll be spending Christmas with B's family in Houston. Should be lots of fun and we'll get lots of time to hold/play with our new nephew! After Christmas, we are flying home to NM for a few days - which we are both looking forward to as well!

Pictures posted this weekend - it's on my to-do list!

Thanksgiving

So this year, B and I hosted our first Thanksgiving! When I say hosted, I should mention that we mainly supplied the house. My parents and brother and niece were kind enough to come over here to celebrate with us. My parents helped out a lot with the food and preparation. We had my aunt and 2 uncles, their kids and my family. 12 people in all! It was a great meal, here are a few pics. The red stuff is asado, a tradition in my family. It was delish - may not seem Thanksgiving-ish - but it is for us!

So we are very thankful for our wonderful family - which also got a new addition a week ago. We have a nephew and we couldn't be more excited.







Happy Thanksgiving!

Doggie Sleepovers...

We often dog sit for our friends, and Ellie LOVES it. Here's a pic from our latest sleepover...Guss and Wyatt are so easy to watch! Ellie plays with Wyatt (in the background) and Guss gets lots of attention (in my face). They also make Ellie a little bit braver. What is funny is that she doesn't let them in our room to sleep at night! Poor guys are very accommodating and eventually she'll allow it. And she is literally half their size!

Rachel Maddow + Jon Stewart = 2 Intelligent People = Awesome.

What does this say about current trends, and how does that reflect upon us, as a society!?!?

I got this email today. I guess we can credit (let's say blame, really) Jennifer Love Hewitt for this vajazzling idea.

Yes - please rip off a layer of skin/hair, then glue rhinestones in it's place. In the shape of my favorite college football team's mascot. What a great idea.

Customizing...

I won't go into how long it took me to get that picture collage on my title. Katy - how did you do it?? My pictures started off well, but by the time I pasted them in a word document, converted to .pdf, then Exported to a .jpeg file - it's a little washed out. But it'll have to do for now!

Also - wanted to say about my blog list - Alamo Blog has a lot of great info about upcoming events, so that's a good one to keep updated on.

Snickollet is a blog I found a few years ago (I already said I'm a blog stalker) when it was highlighted on CNN. The author wrote about the loss of her husband and raising her twins during/after that loss. I was hooked, and as strange as it is (though maybe not in 2010), I like to keep up with how that family is doing. Obviously, I don't personally know them. Ok, it's definitely strange - even though it's 2010 and our lives are online. But when you start reading someone's life, it's like a book...and she's a good writer.

Are you there youth, it's me Nikki? is an AWESOME blog I found through EW.com. If you go back through her posts, she re-reads and reviews many of my favorite old "tween" books, such as, "Are you there God, it's me, Margaret" and a lot of other Judy Blume books. She has links on her page to other old book review sites, such as "The Dairy Burger" (Sweet Valley High, also a hilarious blog) and "What Claudia Wore", and other Babysitters Club sites. These are a lot of fun to read, since they've done the work of re-reading these books and are able to "review"/satirize from an adult point of view! Seriously, all those books (besides Judy Blume) were pretty ridiculous! But it brings back great memories.

Alright, that's all for now folks. Ignore the timestamp, I did this all from home. ;)

Trailer Missions...

We finally went and tried a Mighty Cone on Sunday. Was really good, albeit not a lot of food for $5. It's our mission to try all the great trailer food Austin has to offer - so one down, a lot more to go!!

Tough Life

Our Ellie has a real tough life...she's been up all morning, terrified b/c I was cleaning - she deserves a nap!

Baby Showers & Halloween

The weekend before Halloween, we went to Houston for B's sister's baby shower. It was a couples' shower and therefore, there was drinking and fun to be had. Lots of cute baby decorations everywhere, but no sitting through a marathon present-opening.

B's sister is due any day now, and we (mainly me) are so excited to meet our new nephew!! B's excited, but I don't think he'll really get it until he sees the baby. I have a niece already and she is 12...excited to have a new baby to hold! One of our good friends in town recently had twins, and there's a few more babies on the way in our circle - so that's even more exciting! I don't think any of the boys in our group are truly ready for this time in our life - but every time I get together with the girls - talks seem to radiate to babies. It's pretty funny. It's all very cliche, but it just sort of happened - must be biological! Actually, all of us discuss, frequently how there really is a biological urge and we used to think that was BS.

Oh, here's a pic of our current pride & joy - after sitting in a mud pit in Houston. She loves running on the green belts in B's neighborhood and finding any type of mess she can get into. She's normally black & white. :)


Halloween
Halloween is a holiday I both get excited for and dread all at the same time. I'm excited at the possibilities - filled with dread once I realize I have zero creativity and will not know what to dress up as. This year was no different.

We ended up watching the UT game (downer!) and then going to this party about 6 miles from our house. It was referred to as the "cave party" b/c it's on some private property and there is a small cave. It turned out to be a blast! There were a ton of people there, great costumes and we all had a good time. I ended up going as the Morton Salt girl...it was ok, slightly obscure and that wasn't helped by the fact that I wore a jacket the whole night. :) Oh well. B's costume was a winner - cousin Eddie from Christmas Vacation. The whole night, all I could think was, "Shitter's full". What's really frightening about the whole thing is how at home and natural B seemed in this getup. I hope it's not a glimpse of my future. ;)



It turned out to be a great night, we rocked it way later than normal and I am still exhausted today because of it. :)

Upcoming: Thanksgiving at our house! My family is coming in...
Baby Liam is coming any day now!
Maybe some random book reviews. I did just re-read all 7 Harry Potters (they were awesome) and cannot wait for the movie. Maybe a movie review...

Just life in general...

So, clearly, this whole blog thing is hard when there isn't too much going on. However, the past month has been busier than usual, so I'll blog about that.

ACL


ACL was a lot of fun this year. Part of the fun (a huge part) was that I had gotten $50 3-day passes last year right after the 2009 festival. We were slightly disappointed with the lineup at first, but seeing as it only cost us $50 each for the whole week, it was well worth it! Incidentally, I won the same $50 tickets for the 2011 festival...woohoo!! We go to ACL every year (since 2003) and this was by far, the best weather EVER. It was also pretty relaxed as we didn't have to rush between stages to see a ton of bands.

Friday I saw Spoon, Ryan Bingham and Phish. Phish was NOT my thing and honestly, I wanted to kill myself by the time the show was over.

Saturday we saw LCD Soundsystem (awesome) and Broken Bells. On Saturday night of ACL, we went to an aftershow at Stubb's to see the Black Keys - they were awesome!

Sunday we saw Edward Sharpe & the Magnetic Zeros, Flaming Lips, the National and a bit of the Eagles. Flaming Lips is always a fun show, and my favorite part was Wayne Coyne saying at the beginning, "I will be coming out in the space ball". Here are some zoomed out and zoomed in versions of this space ball.




So I'll post more about other October stuff...so it's not all in one post.

Test blog

Well, this is my first blog post.

I am a blog-stalker. I read a lot of blogs, daily and I've always wanted to write my own. I read friends' blogs, stranger blogs, and sometimes just hit the "Next Blog" button to find a new one. I've found that most people seem to blog about their kids, their upcoming wedding, a specific topic (recipes, coupon clipping, you name it) or their lives that seem to be a touch more interesting than mine. :) So I wasn't really sure what to write about....however, boredom prevailed and has led me to write a post.

About me: I have a live-in bf, a doggie and we just bought a house. It's been a great year, we enjoyed 2 whole weeks in Hawaii (with family) and have made it (I think) through most of our changes quite well.

I've been with the bf, B for 6 years now. We started off as great friends and we are lucky to still be great friends. I feel like an old married couple except that we're not old, or married yet. I met him through a great friend of mine, who I happened to meet while studying abroad. I won't bore you with anymore than that, we're a normal couple. We share a love of crappy reality tv, really good tv, movies, gambling, our dog and enjoying life.

Elanor (Ellie belle, see pic on right) is our little pup. She just turned 2 and we treat her much like we probably will our future human children. She is super spoiled, not necessarily the most trained (hopefully our kids WILL be trained) and has a pretty wonderful life. It's funny how much a dog can change your little "family" and how, when you don't have kids yet, the dog becomes the kid. B was NOT eager to get the doggie, mainly b/c he knew he would be obsessed with it (he is) and b/c he wanted to be carefree a few more years...having a dog means responsibility. I had been wanting one forever and finally talked (cried) him into the idea. And we've loved having her!

That's my life in a nutshell. I work, which I don't want to harp on here (just in case), but let's just say that at this time, my job (in particular) is not my passion.

We live in Austin, TX - which is an awesome city! I've lived here since going to school at UT, a very long 12 years ago now. But I've loved every minute of it. I wish I was closer to my fam, but they're not too far.

I haven't decided yet what I'll post about on here...I'm thinking a few book reviews (I've been reading a lot lately), some restaurant reviews (B and I have been wanting to try more new places instead of sticking with the same old), and maybe some pics of all the great stuff B cooks! I am very fortunate (as are our stomachs) that he has taken charge of cooking and recipes, and is quite good at it!