Snow day

Note: This post is for my sister, Katie, who while she was with us complained that the winter wasn't as cold and wintery as it should have been.

Friday February 4th it actually snowed in Austin

Believe it or not, this is what Austin shuts down for. I didn't go into work yesterday because the freezing temperatures were causing power outages so they closed early, and then the salon stayed closed today because of the snow. School was cancelled as well! You may laugh at Austin shutting down for a mere 1 1/2 inches of snow, but the reality is that no one here knows how to drive when it's really slick, and Austin doesn't have snow plows or sand to help make the roads better. So, all in all, it's really better for everyone to just stay home and out of danger. I know I can drive in the snow, it's everyone else that worries me. But for now I'm just enjoying being home with my puppy and my love where it's nice and warm.

February already?

Yikes January went fast! All of a sudden I'm looking and the calendar thinking, "Where did January go?" But whether I like it or not, it's officially February, which is one of my favorite months and I'll tell you why:

1. Our anniversary. This February makes our 4th year being married! I can't believe it!

2. My birthday is in February

3. And of course, Valentine's Day

It's a pretty packed month, as you can see, so I'll be waiting to see what Mr. Meine has planned for said events :)

Things haven't really been crazy around here, they've just been very laid back. I like that a lot, but then again when that happens, I don't blog as much. But I figured I'd put our Christmas pictures up because this last Christmas was pretty great.

We actually had a pretty good little pile of presents going on there under our tree. It surprised us, because that happened only a couple of days before Christmas morning

May-May knew she had presents under the tree. Everytime she walked by that tree she'd sniff her boxes. Smart cookie.

For Christmas morning breakfast we made breakfast burritos and they were SO DELICIOUS!

I'm stoked

On to present opening! This here's our lovely digital camera that dad sent us

Katie got some snazzy UVU socks from the parental units back home

May-May was stoked about her gifts, but she didn't know what to do with them, so we had to help her

Kaje is stoked on life

Okay. Ander is laughing like that because that little tiny present he's holding in his hand magically appeared there. I was sitting over by the tree, and I threw that present at him to open next, and the present literally slipped right under his fingers. That position his hand is in was the exact position it was in when I threw it. It was a Christmas miracle :)

More socks! From us this time!

What else would you expect for Ander?

Joe was the coolest brother ever and sent me and Katie Castlevania: Symphony of the Night for Playstation!

Wiiiiii! Thanks mom!

Now this is where I'm going to SEAMLESSLY connect that Christmas morning with me and Ander's post Christmas morning we had on January 16th. It's a long story, and it's all blah blah blah, so we just had our Christmas for each other late.

FINALLY! I had been asking to buy this since October and it took Ander THIS LONG to let me have it.

A digital watch to put on his boat steering wheel. I don't ask questions, I just buy him what he asks for. Makes sense to me.

Ander gave me this giant present and for the life of me I could not figure out what was in it...

Of course. The good old "put-a-tiny-present-in-a-huge-box" gag. Lame. Super stoked about the giftcard though.

Wire cutters.

A new digital clock to go in my car since my car's died. (Forgive the random solemn smile. I was pretty happy to have a new clock)

Ander has needed new dress shirts since he came home from his mission, but he's lazy and doesn't want to buy more. So I had to.

Bring on the kettlebell! I've been on a workout kick lately and I read that kettlebells burn 20 calories per minute! Ander bought me a kettlebell with a DVD and it's amazing!

You can't really see them, but I got Ander a Frogg Toggs rain suit for Christmas. They're super lightweight and they keep you dry when it rains and your out fishing.

One of my favorite artists is James Christensen, and Ander bought me a 1500 piece puzzle of one of his works! How cool is that? Which one, you ask? You'll just have to wait until I finish it!

All in all, our Christmas was great. The only thing that was a bummer was that we were so far from home. I really missed my family this year, and it was really hard. But we had a lot of fun and we are planning on coming home for Christmas 2011, so prepare yourselves!

That's it for Christmastime. It was a great holiday, and as I say goodbye for now I leave you with an awesome picture I snapped of May-May with my new camera:

Adios for now!

Gas mask anyone?

May-May has had THE WORST gas in the world these past couple of days. Rancid. And for all of you out there, no, I don't feed her anything from the table. She eats dog food and her rawhides. That is it. Nothing else. Why are her bowels so rotten? I don't know, but if you don't hear from me in a few days, call a search party.

I hate goodbyes

So we tried make ours pretty short. Today we said goodbye to my sister, Katie, who has been living with us since June. We had a great time together these last six months, and she learned a lot here. I'm really going to miss her, but she's moving on to bigger and better things. The next chapter of her life will be even better! Thanks for the good times, Kaje, it was a time I'll never forget.

Piles of jewelry are so last year...

I was given some wonderful necklaces by my mother two Christmases go but I had nowhere to put them. They sort of fell into a pile on my vanity...

But it's amazing what sorts of things you can make using old junk from Goodwill, yes?

I used an old picture frame and repainted it, then I filled it with scrap board from Home Depot.

I covered the board in fabric and glued my spoons on it with E6000 craft glue. I had to go completely Neo Matrix style on these spoons to get them to bend.

I wanted to flatten them, but they were just too thick. And now, I have a wonderful necklace display, not to mention a cool piece of wall art.

I found the idea here and decided to give it a try. Now with my necklaces and my earrings hanging on the wall, I have so much more space on my vanity! Granted, more space equals more places to put junk, right? Oh well, they sure do look pretty on my wall, and they were both really fun to make!

Wiiiiiiiiiiiii!

Need I say more? This was our Christmas gift from my madre this year. I'm telling you all right now, THIS. THING. IS. AWESOME.

Need I say more? This was our Christmas gift from my madre this year. I'm telling you all right now, THIS. THING. IS. AWESOME. Not only does it have awesome games, but it makes you get into aforementioned awesome games! I was sore the day after we played golf, boxing, tennis, and bowling. SORE! That's right, I was sore from a video game. Can life get any better? I submit that it canNOT!

The Wii also has Netflix, so you can watch instant movies anytime. I've been watching some cool movies while decoupaging the last couple of days... which reminds me...

Has anyone seen this movie? Because it is AWESOME!

...Anyway... ah yes, the Wii. So, the Wii has Netflix, but it also has something called the Virtual Console where you can purchase really old school video games like the original Zelda, Mario Brothers, Donkey Kong and such, and download them right to your Wii. No need for game cartridges or anything. I'm so excited to start building my collection of the oldies :)

Ander still prefers to play Halo, which is totally cool with me because we are seriously kicking some Covenant and Flood booty, but the Wii is defintely a cool little piece of equipment. Thank you mom! What a great gift!

The many faces of the May-Merz

We have come to find here in the Meine household that May-May has many faces. I decided to finally catch them all in photos and put them here because I love them.

She can be a pinscher

She can be a fruit bat

She can be a baby seal

She can be a gremlin

She can be a racing dog

And she can be our puppy

These pictures turned out so wonderful... you want to know why?

That's right! For Christmas from my wonderful father we received our very own HIGH TECH digital camera! I love this thing. It's so great! It takes fantastic pictures, and it has some awesome settings. I can finally take a picture of May-May without the flash making her look like she has demon dog eyes! Hooray for practical and well thought-out Christmas presents! Thank you Dad, we really needed this! You can bet there will be many more pictures to come!