Busy Weekend

I apologize for the lack of recent updates. We've been pretty busy the past few days preparing for our ski trip -- we both went into work this weekend and did a bunch of laundry, errand-running, and getting the house ready for G to come and watch Annie and Amos. This weekend was pretty much go-go-go, and just when I felt like we had enough on our plate, our glass shower door fell off the hinges while I was getting out of the shower last night. In the process of reaching out to grab it, I slipped and slammed my arm into the metal door frame. The good news is that I kept the glass door from shattering, but the bad news is that it fell against the shelf that we had hung above the toilet, which ripped the mollies out of the wall. The other bad news is that we can't figure out how to get the door back on, so we're having to shower in the guest bath for now. The other bad news is that I now have a pretty painful bruise on my arm. How am I so good at hurting myself?

We did have some fun this weekend though. I got to catch up with my Aunt Liz and Audrey while helping them paint their house, and Ben helped his parents fix their septic tank, which had been backing up. I know that doesn't really sound like a lot fun, but Ben loves any reason to get on a piece of equipment and is always up for a challenge. We also went to dinner at Roaring Fork with some friends on Saturday night. We had never been there before, and we had a great time. The food was awesome (Ben had a steak, and I had swordfish), and the atmosphere was pretty cool, too. We had a pretty big group (11 adults and 2 kids), and they sat us in a room in the very back where there was just one huge circular table. It was perfect -- we could talk to everyone that was there and did not have to strain at all to hear over any background noise. Last night, we went over to Jason and Cheryl's to watch the game and eat her homemade lasagna. It was so good -- I may or may not have had 3 helpings. :) We actually went over there again tonight for pulled pork sandwiches. Have I mentioned how much I love living next door to the Sotos? Their food is the best, and we feel so fortunate to have some of our very best friends living next door.

P.S. Please continue to keep my Aunt Liz, Audrey, and the rest of my family in your prayers. Today is Cody's birthday, and we all really wish he was here with us to celebrate.

P.P.S. Stay tuned for pictures from our ski trip. I'm just hoping that they are of me soaring down the mountain and not of me sprawled out on the snow. Keep your fingers crossed...

Adios Hermano-In-Law

Josh left this afternoon for Spain. He is studying abroad this semester in Sevilla and is hoping to find an internship somewhere over there this summer. It's hard to believe that we won't see him for 7+ months, but I know that he is going to have an amazing time. Please keep him in your prayers over the next few months.
P.S. For those of you who don't know Spanish, the title of this post is "Goodbye Brother-In-Law". I realize that this is not the literal translation, but I'm pretty sure we never learned the word for "brother-in-law" in high school, and I was too lazy to look it up. :)

Weekend Recap

This past weekend was busy -- but lots of fun.

On Friday, we met up with Ben's family for dinner at Carino's.
We were originally supposed to head down to Uncle Jack's ranch in Tarpley (about 2 hours away) afterward but ended up not going because of the weather. We were only going to be able to stay until Saturday afternoon, so we decided that it'd be better to go on a weekend that it wasn't raining. Unfortunately (fortunately?), the Liggetts had already bought a huge cookie cake to take down to the ranch with us (since Josh is leaving to study abroad in Spain this week), so they left it at our house. I originally thought, "there's no way we can even put a dent in that", but I'd be embarrassed to show you the little bit that's left. Ugh.

On Saturday, we celebrated Holly's birthday. We went to dinner at Texas Land & Cattle with the whole family and then went over to Grandma's house to eat cake and open presents.After opening presents, we went downtown with Holly and Nelson and met up with a few of their friends. We went to The Ranch first and had a great time sipping drinks by the fire and people-watching. I mean, seriously, who doesn't love people-watching??? Later that night, we decided to head over to The Aquarium for a little bit of dancing -- although Ben and I didn't stay too long for fear that we would turn into pumpkins.

On Sunday, we met up with Arian, a friend from college that we hadn't seen in almost 2 years. Arian is currently a PhD student at UT and is busying studying bio-mechanics (at least I think that's what she said). We decided to get together before the semester started for fear that she wouldn't be free again until the semester was over and met at Chez Zee for dinner and dessert. We had never been there before, but Arian had heard that they have the best desserts in Austin, so we decided to give it a try -- and we are so glad that we did! Everything was awesome. For dessert, Ben had the Dr. Pepper cake, I had the creme brulee, and Arian had the chocolate decadence cake -- and we have already decided that we are going to have to meet there again and try the other 15+ desserts.
And as if the desserts weren't enough, the atmosphere is pretty cool, too. Everything (and I mean everything!) was decorated with white and red Christmas lights and other shimmery decorations. They even had a red shiny grand piano in the middle of the restaurant that someone plays on both Friday and Saturday nights. Pretty cool, huh?
Needless to say, the weekend flew by. Unfortunately, we didn't get much laundry or cleaning done, but that's okay. There's always next weekend. :)

Happy Birthday Holly!

Today is Holly's 23rd birthday! As a tribute to her, I have uploaded some of my most favorite "Holly moments" -- dating back to when I got my 1st digital camera. Enjoy!

Christmas 2003...
Hanging out upstairs over Christmas break...
Her 17th birthday...
Not really wanting her picture taken...
Easter 2004...
Getting her wisdom teeth removed...
Family vacation for Florida...
Summer 2004...
Christmas 2004...
Summer 2005...
Her 19th birthday...
Playing with the Firth kids...
Another family vacation...
Maid of Honor at our wedding...
A little emotional during her speech...
Getting her Aggie ring...
Running her 1st half-marathon in Dallas...
Her half-marathon in Austin...
New Year's Eve...

Happy birthday to my favorite sister. I know that I only have 1 sister, but I'm pretty sure that even if I had a million, she'd still be my very favorite. I love you, Holly!

New Camera

Our new camera came in the mail today.

Ben has been wanting to get a new one for awhile now, but I was a little hesitant. I really didn't want to spend the money (shocking, I know), I was perfectly happy with the picture quality of our current camera, and I absolutely hate learning any type of new technology. I guess you could say that I'm just a little stubborn, but luckily, Ben talked me into it. After taking just a few pictures with it, I am officially in love.

Here's a picture that I took with our old camera.
And here's one with the new one.Pretty big difference, huh?

The color and clarity are so much better -- not to mention the fact that Ben is not smiling at all in the "before" picture and has a huge grin on his face in the "after" picture. He claims that it was just a coincidence, but I'm pretty sure that he did it on purpose so that the new picture would look even better than it already does. And as for Amos, he looks pretty scared in both of the pictures.

I spent the rest of the evening playing around with the camera settings and taking pictures. Annie and Amos were nice enough to volunteer to be my models.

Annie hoarding her bones...
Amos still trying to master the chewing technique...
Such an innocent face...
Annie doing everything she can to not look at the camera, and Amos coming straight for it...
Waiting for me to give her the bone back...
Such a good little poser...
A little tired of all the pictures...
And, finally, a good one...
And, last but not least, some self portraits. Let me first say that taking self portraits with a dog is not the easiest task. I look completely nutty, and Annie and Amos look scared to death, but they are pretty entertaining.
I guess you were right this time, B. This camera is awesome!