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...