Ella's New Haircut!

Ella has been growing like a Texas weed! She will be 1 year old on March 27th, and time has flown by so quickly since when we first got her. Sometimes I sit and look through her pictures of her growing up. I remember when we first got her, she immediately started running the house. We have done training and have worked with her diligently to listen and follow the rules. She really does a good job for the most part. But when she gets too excited there is really no hope of getting her to listen and that is when we place enforcement of the rules. As she has been growing, so has her hair. This little ball of fur that we once had has taken shape of a dog with a very shaggy hairstyle that can get very dirty, very quickly. After many baths and constantly brushing this unmanageable fur I realized it was time to get her a haircut. I have given Copland a haircut before, and to be honest it was horrible. I didn't think it would be that hard to give a dog a hair cut, and assumed that no one would even notice a bad haircut on a dog, because it's a dog with dog hair. Little did I know how bad a haircut can actually turn out, and how it can actually affect an animal's self esteem. After I gave Copland a haircut, he would not keep eye contact with anyone for the next couple of days, and constantly hid away from us. After that mistake I realized the a job like this would be best left for the professionals.
I took Ella to the groomers and hoped things would end well. I decided to go all out and get the full grooming with the haircut and was told she would be ready within 2 hours. I dropped her off and came back at exactly 2 hours, only to find out that she did not like the industrial blow dryers and had an issue with that. I had to come back and hour later, and that is when she was ready. I couldn't believe my eyes and it felt like I was seeing a new dog. Until I saw that little excited face, and the dog that would listen, but pay attention to enforcement. I was a little nervous to see how David would interact with this new puppy look. He was honestly so blown away about how she once again looks like a puppy before her 1st birthday. I really have enjoyed getting this new haircut for her and plan to continue through out the shave for her and Copland- especially during the summer. Texas heat is just way too hot to deal with an undercoat. So now we have our fashionable puppies with their fashionable haircuts and same old attitudes.

Lucy's Birthday!

* I know I have a hard time keeping up with this Blog. I finally understand how some people ignore their computers when they come home after sitting behind one all day.*

A couple of Sunday's ago I was at work thinking about what needed to be done for our Super Bowl game night. We originally were not going to host a game night, but then we realized every one wanted to play Game Night so we decided to put it back on. Eveything was going fine at work, while I was surfing Facebook and realized it was Lucy's Birthday that following Tuesday. I knew there would be no way we could see her Tuesday so we needed to throw a surprise party and fast!
I took an immediate break and called Kelly and Pata with emergency on the brain! "Lucy's Birthday is on Tuesday! We need to do a surprise party!" Kelly took the task on of making a Birthday Card and Pata took the task of Birthday Cake. My job was the Birthday gift. Everything turned out so well in such a short period of time. Pata had managed to get a birthday cake, streamers, loot bags and more! And Kelly went above and beyond by taking a canvas and making the biggest best birthday card I have ever seen. I went the "Lyzz" route and had one of my favorite pictures of Lucy and Cameron printed out to a 8x10 and placed in a matted frame.
I got home a little early to go pick up the print and met Kelly and Pata at the house. We blew up ballons and set that house up for a Birthday Surprise fit for a Queen. (A queen who loves chocolate and unicorns with rainbows) Everything looked fantastic and the only thing we were waiting for was the birthday girl. They finally showed up and the best part was getting to see Lucy's face when she walked through that door.
She was so touched and so excited about all of the things that we put together! It was so great to have such amazing friends that can count on each other when we really need it. There was a birthday to be had, and we took care of it!

Happy Birthday Lucy!
Hope it was the best so far!

Arc Attack!

Last year during Rock Fest, I was lucky enough to be working backstage and saw an amazing Austin band called Arc Attack and I had fallen in love. Their show was one of a kind and no matter what you were into, you will love Arc Attack!
I tried to convince David to come see their show and with him hating large crowds and downtown I knew I could never convince him to make his way out. He ended up missing the show and I was worried that he would never get a chance to check them out. Even though Arc Attack is an Austin band, they are very very big over seas. They were going on a 3 month tour in Europe and it is just really hard to catch a show when they come back home.One day I was browsing Facebook and noticed that Arc Attack was back in town and having a free show in Austin. It was a fundraiser for relief in Haiti and was in some venue close to downtown without having to deal with 'downtown parking.' Of course it being a BYOB (bring your own booze) party wasn't half bad either. So the Foster's and the Balentine's packed up the cooler, put on some jackets and headed to the show. We ended up getting there just in time to get a good enough spot, right in front of the barriers to see the magic that is Arc Attack. I had explained to David, Kelly and Alan how the show works out, but there really is no way to explain what it is they do without seeing it. The way they explain it on their website is "Two custom engineered hand built Tesla Coils throw out electrical arcs up to twelve feet long, each one acting as an instrument with a sound reminiscent of the early days of the synthesizer. A robotic drum set accompanies the spectacle, it's high power LED's flashing bright colors with the stroke of each mechanically actuated stick, while ArcAttack's six members churn out rhythmic instrumental melodies." I like to explain it as "AWESOME!"So, really it is electricity that they have shooting out making music. They have a robotic drummer, a guy on keyboard and a full band. They've created their own music and do some amazing covers. They even have a guy go in a metal suit and stand between the "bolts of electricity." They even had a raffle and chose 5 people from the crowd to stand in a metal cage and rockout to the music while the bolts were touching the box. I know I can't do this band justice, but all I can say is if you know they are having a show and you can make it, then don't miss it!

Pictionary Rules!

Game night is every Sunday, at least we try to make sure it is every Sunday. It has actually turned into a dinner before hand with games as dessert. We have started to bring in new games and have found more enjoyed ones over others. Kelly and Alan moved to Austin and started joining our group of game fun. Kelly even brought over the game Pictionary. I do have to say that is our favorite game yet!

Here is a little Collage to see all of the fun we have been having with our favorite game.

The Fosters are Here!

A few years back I had moved to Houston to start a new life. Over a few months of enjoying the city I started to meet new and interesting people. All of those people that I had met, I honestly do not talk to anymore. Almost a year of living in Austin, I had gotten a job as a manager at a Smoothie King. We were opening a new store and had hired some really great people to start the new adventure of mixed fruit. Kelly was one of the first people hired.The first time I met her I was hungover from my English Professor's 50th birthday party and could barely work. I believe my first word's to her were "I am so Hungover and it's so weird because I never drink." She didn't really know what to think and didn't really know to talk to me. Over a couple of weeks we actually started to become really good friends. We started hanging out after work and getting to know each other better. I finally moved back to San Antonio and she stayed in Houston. We would catch up over the phone and I got to see her every once in a while when I would make a trip up to the 'wetlands.' Over time I had gotten married and moved to Austin and she had gotten engaged. Her and her fiancée, Alan, came up to Austin to visit. I remember her and I talking on the phone before her visit, worried of how our men were going to get along. Well, wouldn't you know, they along very well. So well, David saw the drive in Alan and wanted to get him a job at AT&T. The attempt didn't work out that well and Kelly and Alan ended up staying in Houston a bit longer. Over time, they ended up getting married and enjoying life. Right before Kelly and Alan were suppose to renew their lease, they got a message from David "Is Alan still interested in working for AT&T?" Within a month, a whirlwind acquired and next thing you know, The Foster's were moving to Austin to start a new life. Alan now works in the same department as David and they live half a mile from where we live.
It's so great to have one of my greatest friends living so close. It is even better to know that David and Alan get along so well. We enjoy our nights out in Austin, dinner nights on Wednesday and game nights on Sundays. Now we can only expect life to continue and memories to be made!

Update: A Less Better Camera

What did I tell you? I always get what I want. And yes, I am fully aware of how spoiled I am.

A couple of Blogs ago I wrote of how I wanted a new camera. I know my argument was horrible and unjustified, and if someone was just reading this from an outside view I could only imagine their reaction as "Yeah, sure! She'll never get a camera with that argument." But those people obviously don't know me. I wrote out to the world what I wanted and why, justified to my own account. I waited patiently for my husband to read the blog. And on the day he did, I sat next to him in the garage, looked at him in the eye and prepared to answer any questions. He just looked over and said "So this means we can get a camera?"

Seriously! How smart is my husband!?! He mentioned a while ago we should get a camera. If you really want to be honest about who gets what they want... it's really him. He placed the idea in my head and I said no. Then I thought and thought and thought about it. It really only took over a year for me to come up with it on my own. And now we both have a great fancy camera, and a tiny little camera that we can use in party like, busy situations.

The day after he read my blog he ran out and bought the camera. Obviously he doesn't play around when getting something that we want. I know he has already gone through all of the research and he ended getting a really great deal for it. And he actually ended up purchasing it from Costco. (We really love Costco, the deals are just great and can't be beat!) So he bought the camera and it has been hard to use it ever since! The main reason being that it is always, ALWAYS on him at all times. He holds on to it like its his phone. It is rarely out of his site and to sneak it out of his possession is pretty hard. I have to actually ask him for it, instead of just grabbing it whenever I want. What is that? I have to ask for something? Yes, I know, I'm spoiled.

We've been using the camera at many opportune moments, and now the "Want Monster" has calmed down until she wants again.

Sunday Nights feel Alright!!!

Another blog about our wonderful Sunday Game Night. Last Sunday was the biggest and best game night we have had yet. We have been a bit busy recently helping our friends Alan and Kelly move into Austin and introduce them to anyone and everyone in town. We've been to the local watering holes, checking out Town Lake, done endless amounts of shopping. The Sunday they moved to Austin ( January 10) We had to cancel our Game Night to help them move in and unpack. I, of course, felt horrible to turn my back on the well planned, always dependable Game Night - so I thought it would be best to make up for it a best as I could.

David and I decided to make dinner for everyone to make up for a missed Night of Games and the ruling of what to eat was good ol' Texas Bar B Que! David made smoked ribs, and I made (purchased) potato salad, hashrowns, and bar-b-que beans. Everyone had a plate of something to eat while there were moments of silence due to the hunger of meat on a bone. We had a 7 person meal eaten in full within 15 minutes. The best part was just enjoying conversations while cleaning up the kitchen. One of the founders of Game Night, PATA!, brought over a dessert to help me out from having to get one myself. She brought a Chocolate Mousse Pie that was amazingly good. So good, that we have now appointed Pata as the dessert girl for Game Night. A huge honor in our Game Night Tribe.

We decided to start the games and we so happy that we can really start to take advantage of the huge poker table David made a while ago. We started with the famously fun game 'Apples to Apples'. I really can't remember if I have mentioned this game before (I'm really bad about keeping up with this blog) but we L-O-V-E this game. We haven't met anyone who doesn't like this game and I'm sure if we did meet someone who didn't like this game, we wouldn't invite them back because they must be crazy, since we really really love this game. Anyway... it's a great game. There is one judge out of the group that picks a green card (Adjective) and everyone else has to put down a red card (Noun) that they think best resembles the green card. The judge decides who best described the green card in their own view, and the one with the most cards wins. Super easy and super fun!

After a round of Apples to Apples we decided to try a new game that I had purchased just for Game Night. It is called Imaginiff... This game is horrible. Do not buy! It looked like a lot of fun and ended up being a lot of pointless work. We couldn't figure out how the game was played and when we finally did, one round barely lasted 5 minutes. On top of that, you have to tell people what you think of them in somewhat of a harsh way. It was no fun, we voted and decided to discard the game. It was returned, and out of our house.

After the horrible mess that is called Imaginiff we decided to take another crack at Apples to Apples. We played for a couple of rounds and started to notice that everyone was getting a little tired of the game. You can really only play it so many times. So we tried to think of another game to play and came up blank. We decided to give this thing 'conversation' a try and see how it goes. Before we got into any real conversation, I grabbed some notecards and pens so we could play the game Who Am I?

Every time we have tried to explain to someone what the game of Who am I is, they automatically say "Oh! Like in the move Inglorious Bastards!" Yes, just like in that movie. Thought I have played that game before, the thought of the movie did pop in my head and did create the idea to play the game with our friends. If you are not familiar with the movie Inglorious Bastards or the game, who am I, then let me explain.

How to Play 'Who Am I!' :

Everyone who is playing gets a sticky note or piece of paper. Everyone will write the name of a celebrity, political figure, cartoon character, book character, etc. You can choose one category or mix them up. Use a different person for each note. Place the note on the forehead of each player. Everyone has to ask yes or no questions to determine who their character/person is. When you figure out who you are you help others try to guess who they are. It actually ended being a lot of fun with a lot of laughs.

We had such a wonderful time with out Game Night Crew and gave hugs and goodbyes around the 10 pm mark.(everyone works Mondays) So my goal is to catch everyone up as much as I can since I am officially a week behind on this blog. We have to much to talk about! Kelly and Alan moved to Austin! And we have started going to this really great dinner party on Wednesday nights that I will have to tell you about too. So thanks for stopping by, and don't be a stranger! Soon I will have some more stories to tell you about!