Good News

I was looking around on the interwebs the other day and came across this little gem: I finally got review on yelp.com for Bradz! Check it out!

One Fish, Two Fish

May-May has turned out to be quite the little fishing companion for Ander these days, but Ander finally found a game for May-May to play that she will play for hours: fish in the tub. She's always been fascinated by the fish Ander catches when they're out on the lake, but this time Ander decided to bring them home and let them swim around in our tub.

At first May-May was extremely confused about this business of fish being in our normally empty bathtub, but she began to gain a little more courage and eventually got into the tub with them!

Her only problem was the big guy. He started getting annoyed with her pawing at him in the water and he would swim in and out of her legs to startle her. She didn't like that, so she tried to move away from him but let's be honest, they both take up the entire tub. He's as long as she is!

We had a little more fun with May-May that night when Ander stuck one of his T-shirts on her. I thought this was hilarious, but just to make everyone aware, I will NEVER be one of those dog owners that dresses their dog up on a regular basis. Never.

Halloween Continued

As promised, here is a better picture of me and Ander on Halloween. We're with our friends Trevor and Michelle who were the ones who threw this magnificent party.

And darling Tracy and Joe in their Charlie Brown and the little redheaded girl costumes. I loved the Charlie Brown hair on Joe's forehead.

Short post, that is all.

Where Did All the Good People Go?

Apparently here in Austin! The other night we were truly blessed because of a good person's deeds. Ander had lost his wallet and he had no idea where it might have been. He had called everywhere he had gone that day with no luck. As we were sitting down to have dinner we said a prayer and Ander said, "Dear Heavenly Father, I really need help right now to find my wallet. I've tried everywhere but I just can't seem to find it. Etc, etc, etc, bless this food, yadda yadda, Amen." So we ate and enjoyed our meal, and just as we were finishing up Ander got a phone call from the restaurant he had been to that night, telling him that "a person had just turned a wallet in that they had found in the parking lot outside." What the!? We couldn't believe it! I went and picked the wallet up the next day since I was already downtown and the people at the bar that overheard my story couldn't believe that someone had actually turned it in, with all the cash, cards, and the driver's license still inside. It's really good to know that there are still some really good people out there that are able to make wonderful choices to help others out.

Out neighbor and friend, Mary, lost a credit card a little while ago and saw a mysterious charge on her account from it so she cancelled it. Just a couple of days ago, after these horrible neighbors of ours were evicted, Mary got a call from the Apartment Manager telling her that they found her credit card in the kitchen of this apartment of teens that had been evicted. I feel so blessed that the Lord put Ander's wallet into good hands. Apparently good people are not a dying breed!

Halloween: Need I Say More?

I declare this year's Halloween as a success. Ander and I were able to actually spend Halloween together for the first time since we were married and it was a blast! I decided to go as Max from Where the Wild Things Are, and Ander worked two costumes: The Hamburglar and a 70s man.

First thing in the morning Ander grabbed May-May and a buddy of his and went out fishing...Hamburglar style. He decided the Hamburglar suddenly discovered a taste for fish, and he thoroughly embarrassed his comrade all morning.

Next I awoke and dressed in my costume for work. Full onesie complete with ears and tail. My mother-in-law did a FANTASTIC job on my costume and I am eternally thankful to her for her hard work. I was a hit all day long and even made some kids smile.

The girls I work with all wore these cute little witch hats, telling me that dressing completely in costume and working with blow dryers all day was not comfortable, and I believe them.

Left to right that's Shandi, Lori, Me, Sonya, and Julie.

And one of my favorite people at Bradz, Amy, the front desk coordinator came all dressed professionally for work when Shandi decided to throw a dread lock wig on her and draw facial hair and tattoos on her face so she looked like Lil' Wayne. Genius. What a trooper, Amy wore that all day! (Way cool aluminum foil grill on there as well)

I had a really slow day, so I spent a lot of my time rubbing everyone down. Clients and co-workers alike. They are all stressing about their parties and costumes that night so I decided to help them out.

Now, onto our evening at our Halloween party. My apologies to everyone for my camera being so sucky since I only have said camera on my phone. I took copies of everyone else's Facebook pages to create my own collection and there are still a couple that I'm missing. Please bear with me, I'll get them up soon.

Our friends Danny and Jenni had some of the coolest costumes I've seen in a long time. Oh the childhood memories...

And Tracy and Joe were the darling Charlie Brown couple, Charlie Brown and the little red headed girl, but that picture will come soon enough. (don't judge) Trevor and Michelle were both dressed in fabulous kimonos and looked wonderful together. Once again, that picture is on its way.

After chatting and catching up with one another it was time to carve our pumpkins. Ander and I decided to use patterns so we were last to finish, but we were very proud of what we accomplished.

^ (Can you tell this one is from my phone's camera?) ^

And ta-dah! Our masterpieces. The pumpkin with the skull is mine and the pumpkin with Bowser is Ander's. We are extremely proud.

Once again, I think this year was a success. Our costumes were fabulous, the party was fabulous, the food was fabulous, work for me was fabulous... it was just a good day. Thanks to my Mama Denton for the costumes, the interwebs for our pumpkin patterns, and the Walshes for the party. What a great Halloween!

(I also have a better picture of Ander's costume coming shortly)

A Night Of Stars

Good news, good news! Ander and I BOTH got into our stake talent show! We'll be performing on the same night in the same show and we can't wait! Ander will be breakdancing and I will be singing. Neither of us have performed in so long we're both really nervous, but we're crazy excited. I'm sure it will be a night to remember.

One Year Plus a Library = SERIOUS Accomplishments

Well, my life has been extremely mundane lately... the most exciting thing that's happen is May-May literally running into a fence... oh yes, and she slipped on wet asphalt while chasing another squirrel and got some pretty bad road rash on her legs, but that's really about it. BUT: Ander and I have now officially been in Austin for one whole year! Yes, I know, it sounds crazy but this year has actually flown by. We've had some really good times here in Austin, even though we're still technically just getting our lives started. Here are a few of the good times:

1. We got our little May-May who we absolutely love and adore

2. We absolutely LOVE our ward. There isn't a better ward in the whole world

3. I was called as the ward chorister

4. I was also called as the Primary chorister (There is no better calling folks)

5. I was able to turn myself into a pretty darn good Esthy over at Bradz and got myself a raise

6. Ander has found some HUGE BASS

7. Ander has placed top three in many tournaments this year (small payouts, but that's not what matters is it?)

8. I got a new car!

9. We found a mechanic we love and trust

10. We became Costco members and feel like we are higher up in society because of it

11. May-May now knows how to sit, lay down, roll over, shake, speak, and stay. She also knows how to take something from Mama to Papa, which comes in handy when we're cleaning different rooms. Quite the accomplishment

12. I beat Final Fantasy VII after 75 hours of gameplay

13. We got through the hottest summer Austin has seen in years and were just fine

14. We visited the San Antonio Temple at least once

15. And last but not least: with the help of Austin's public library, I read 47 different novels this last year.

I can't thank the library enough for all the wonderful stories they've introduced me to! I don't know where I would be without my library card. I broke it down and that's almost a book a week. I want to thank my brother Joe who got me hooked on the classics with Dracula last October, and Ander for putting up with my constant need to tell him exactly what's going on in my stories, and the library for putting up with me constantly. I had no idea that moving to Austin would cause me to become such a book lover. And as if the first list wasn't enough, these books were my favorites (in no particular order):

1. Ender's Game

2. Watership Down

3. Jurassic Park

4. Life of Pi

5. Call of the Wild

6. White Fang

7. Slaughterhouse Five

8. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time

I found this wonderful website called goodreads.com and it has been a huge help in finding more books to read. I have created another good, long booklist for this next year with books like The Hunger Games (thanks to you Lonna), Eats, Shoots & Leaves, The Count of Monte Cristo, Dune, The Book Thief, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn and Water For Elephants. Check out my shelves on goodreads for a complete list.

So far we love Austin. We miss our families very much, but we believe Heavenly Father sent us here for a reason, and we sure feel like we belong here. Things are looking up for the next year so BRING IT ON!

The Joys of a Puppy

We've had some interesting incidences with May-May these last couple days. First: we bought her new food (Costco brand is apparently one of the best dog foods out there) and she couldn't WAIT to get her grubby little paws on it. I mixed the new food in with the remaining old food and this is what happened:

She pulled mouthfuls of the mixed food out of her bowl, spit it all out on the ground, and then picked out the new food while leaving the old food in a heap. This continues to happen. I am determined to make her eat all of her old food so it is COMPLETELY gone and we haven't wasted any, but she's making it extremely difficult.

May-May also had an accident the other day. Ander was outside with her trying to get her to chase squirrels (it's our new favorite May-May activity) when she spotted one on the opposite side of a chain-link fence. The squirrel was not INSIDE the perimeters of the chain-link fence, but on the outside of them on the other side. May-May somehow didn't actually see the fence there and ran straight for the squirrel. It was only when she crashed headlong into the fence did she realize it was there. I have made a diagram to show what happened:

She hit that fence so hard it actually made a little crescent moon shape on her muzzle. Poor thing!

Took the hair right off! It also swelled so much that day! She had a huge bump on her nose. She still loves to chase those squirrels, but I'm pretty sure she thinks twice about noticing what's around her before she runs...maybe.

Our Spiritual Weekend

Man, it's been a while since I've posted something. My life really hasn't been all that interesting lately... but here are a few tidbits.

Ander and I finally got the the San Antonio temple! After a year and a half! The drive was about an hour and a half, so we dropped May-May off at our friends' house to play with Spock, and took off for the day.

A couple of snapshots of things we saw along the way:
My maiden name is Arrington, and I rarely ever see it written somewhere. I thought it was interesting... (and yes, I'm well aware that this says Yarrington, not Arrington)

I thought it was interesting that there would be a wildlife safari in the middle of Texas. I especially like the Giraffe on the sign. Are there Giraffes in Texas somewhere? After all, it is mostly desert...

For the life of us, Ander and I couldn't quite figure out how to pronounce this road. Our friends later told us they pronounced it nack-o-do-chez... sounded about right to us. Who knows, really?

And finally, our destination: The San Antonio Temple. You'll have to forgive the lighting, it was a really overcast day, so the picture is a little grainy. It was a really pretty temple, and I guess it's what you call a "Mini Temple." It's actually quite small. I'm pretty sure I could have climbed up to the top with my bare hands. But it was beautiful none-the-less, and we were grateful to be there. It was on a busy street but somehow seemed very peaceful. It was totally worth the drive.

When we finally got home, we picked May-May up and found out that she hadn't gotten a break from Spock the entire time we were gone, so when we got home, she crashed in her usual place, under her favorite chair, looking like a smashed frog.
And then that following weekend was General Conference! It was fantastic to be able to stay home that Sunday. And the talks were fantastic... at least the ones I heard. You see, I don't sleep very well most of the time, so on the weekends it really catches up to me. So I laid down on the couch during the last session and lo and behold:
I was out. I've made a promise that I will listen to the talks that I missed to make up for when I was sleeping, I was just so tired, I couldn't help it. Ander snapped this little gem without me knowing :)

Vampires?

I've been feeling extremely nauseous lately, and I'm pretty sure it's because everyone around me can't stop talking about vampires. It's beginning to drive me a little crazy. Vampires do not have the same effect on me as they apparently do on most people these days.
I don't feel like I need to explain the Twilight obsessions, this is nothing new. Every girl wants an "Edward" in her life, when in reality there is no Edward in anyone's life. But the newest sensation around me right now is this "True Blood" HBO show. I know it's been out for a while, but that's literally all any of my coworkers can talk about. Here are my problems:
1) HBO. You can show ANYTHING on HBO. This gives True Blood leeway to show just about anything. Let's be honest people, it's a soft-core vampire show.
2) Lame idea. Blood in a bottle!
3) The acting, accents, and people are terrible! They just took a bunch of good looking people, no matter what they're talents were, and threw them on set.

A client of mine, who is probably 50 or so is completely obsessed with this man who plays one of the lead guys in this series. And when I say obsessed, I really mean obsessed. She has over 300 pictures of him on her phone, she Facebooks about his latest news, she drove to the Austin airport the other day because he was flying in for a film festival here and she waited around for hours to see if she could catch a glimpse of him... and I had to sit and listen to a 45 minute rave about him just the other day while I was taking care of some inventory at work. 45 minutes! She also claims to have spoken to him over Myspace, but we all know that isn't true...except her. None of the celebrities on Myspace are the real people. Is it a little too much to ask for everyone to grow up? I'm tired of hearing about these oh-so-sexy vampires that sparkle or drink blood from a bottle!

Texas = Big, Nasty, Bugs

People told me before we moved here that Texas had a lot of big, nasty bugs. They were right. I guess I knew they were right, because everything is bigger in Texas, but of course the bugs wanted to make sure I saw them myself. Here are a few of my experiences:

1) Giant cockroach on our ceiling the second night we were living in our apartment. About as big as Ander's thumb. I used to have a picture of it, but I have somehow lost it. But just believe me, it was enormous

2) Huge, jet black wasps. One got into my house and I was pretty sure that Satan himself was hanging out on my window blinds. He was about as big as MY thumb (which is a lot smaller than Ander's but still...) I went down to the grocery store and bought wasp spray so I could take him out... in my house. I think I stood a good 12 feet away.

3) Crickets. Ander says I'm crazy, but the crickets here are gigantic. The ones in Utah were tiny, like the ones you feed to your pet lizard. A Texas cricket could feed a pet lizard for a day. And they're everywhere. Running all over our front walkway. AND I've killed at least 5 inside our apartment. May-May thinks they're awesome. I, do not.

4) Fire ants. Right outside of our dining room window. We got sprayed a while back and for some reason the other day they just decided they wanted to come inside. All of them are dead when I find them, but they're still all over my carpet.

5) Cockroaches. A lot of them. We decided to move my big stereo out of the kitchen the other day and into our bedroom and do you know what we found? I pulled the speakers away from the disc changer and lo and behold I saw a bunch of baby cockroaches crawling into the slits on the side of the stereo. Yes, folks, there was a family of cockroaches living in my stereo. Ander says it makes perfect sense... the stereo was right by the sink, and I'm sure the stereo was nice and damp and warm. Perfect place to lay a bunch of eggs. I then found more cockroaches behind our toaster oven.

Conclusion: I...HATE...BUGS. Although I have gotten braver and started killing them myself, I still hate the fact that I've found so many in my home. Your home should feel like a safe haven and mine does not. I am constantly afraid that I'm going wake up in the middle of the night and have a cockroach crawling on me. I love Texas very much, but I HATE the bugs. End of story.

Rain, Rain, Come and Stay

I've never been so happy about rain in my life. It rained ALL DAY LONG today. A good, steady rainfall. It was fantastic! Maybe now we'll start to see a light at the end of this drought's tunnel. There's nothing like a good, steady rainfall to turn the plants that were once scorched and yellow into little green living things. And during every one of my facials we could hear the rain outside my window. It was relaxing and wonderful. Hopefully our stake-wide fast worked! I just hope I don't run over any toads in the roads...

It's Been A Long Time Coming

Take a look kids! Me and Ander's combined project: curtains for our front room window! Now don't judge, I know they're really simple, but they took quite a while to make. We originally bought the fabric went we first got married, uh... a little over two years ago. We got the fabric cut this last April, sewed a little bit during April 2009 conference, and we finally finished them a couple days ago. I'm so proud! I actually did quite a bit of the sewing myself! And they only took us two years to complete.

Nature and Science

Ander and I decided to take a little trip without our puppy and go and visit the Austin Nature and Science Center downtown. I have to say, it was pretty cool. Plus, it was only about 89 to 90 degrees outside with a nice breeze, so we didn't have to worry about it being too hot since the center was outside. And Ander did a nice job of cutting off my feet in this picture and making me look like I'm standing in a ditch. :) As if I wasn't short enough already...

The trees were all extremely friendly... this was stamped in front of each one of them on the cement, so we obliged.

They host science camps for little kids in the summer, and we were excited to find a giant Tic-Tac-Toe board on the ground! So, naturally we challenged each other. Ander was X's I was O's... And I lost.

We came across in incredibly interesting sight when we looked into a Falcon's cage. You tell me what you see here: I see one beheaded chick. I thought it was really interested. No blood, just a body and a head. That falcon looked like it could do the same thing to both of us in the blink of an eye.

My favorite picture of the entire day. These lizards just couldn't get close enough to the light above them.

And what day trip would be complete without fish? Ander is just drawn to water, no matter where he or it is. He was desperately looking for bass in this pond here, but he didn't find any.

So after a good long while of walking around we decided to try the Freebirds World Burrito for lunch. Tex Mex food with a touch of rock and roll style. Famous for their burritos, Freebirds wasn't too bad, although I would have preferred a little less loud music.

My favorite part of Freebirds was the aluminum foil creations. Each burrito is wrapped in aluminum foil and people through the years have used their foil to make strange and wondrous things. They completely covered the inside walls.

And thus ends the adventure we had in downtown Austin. We've decided to start trying to do an "Austin" thing once a week. Wish us luck!

A Little Change in the Weather

We finally got a little bit of rain the other day, and it came down HARD! It only lasted about 20 minutes, but in this drought every little bit helps. I don't know how well you can see in the picture above, but it was absolutely pouring!

Of course once it starting pouring outside May-May begins to ring her potty bell non-stop. Thinking she'd reconsider if I showed her what it looked like outside I opened the front door and said, "You really want to go out in that?" Apparently, she did. She bolted out the door. Now, she wasn't on a leash, but I knew she wouldn't go far. Instead she decided to challenge the kids that live next to us that were out there standing around with towels on their heads. It was great.
Cute little Brianna chased May-May around for a good 10 minutes until she finally decided to go potty, and then come home.

After she came inside she decided to watch the rest of the downpour from the couch.

If You Give Me A Treat...

I finally got a good video of all the tricks our little May-May knows. She's such a smart cookie! Ander did most of the training... I was just her cheerleader. She caught on very fast!

For The Geek In All Of Us

I saw one of the sweetest movies today, it was sent to us by my mother-in-law. This is a movie for the geek inside you. A super sweet story of a geeky guy who runs into a super pretty girl on the train. He then asks all of his online buddies how to go about the situation and get up the guts to ask her out and they all throw in their two cents. I laughed, I cried, I was moved, I loved it. What a great little movie! But be warned, it's all in Japanese and has English subtitles, so if that's not your thing then you won't enjoy it. I would recommend it to anyone! Go and rent it!

I Think I'm In Love

I have found my new favorite cleaning and weight loss tool! Behold: The Sweepa Rubber Broom! I was trying to figure out what to do about all the black May-May hair all over our carpets when I remembered seeing a rubber broom somewhere on the interwebs. I found it and ordered it and I am so impressed! This thing can do it all. Tile, carpet, linoleum, hardwood, you name it. It also has a squeegee on the back! I can scrub my hard floors and my carpet, squeegee spills, and sweep up all the May-May hair! (And my hair) And not only does it clean, but you work up a heck of a sweat when sweeping hair from the carpet. I'm telling you, yes you, you need to buy this broom. It will be the best tool you'll ever own.

Embarrassing: This is the hairball I swept up from our bedroom. ONLY our bedroom. Yes, that's what was on our floor. Granted, a lot of my own hair is in that hairball too, but this just shows you the awesomeness of this broom.