My puppy can prep you for a pedi

Bella removing the sock from your foot.

Bella presenting you with the sock so that you can play.

My husband would like for me to add that, although his foot was used in the picture, he does not get "pedis". :)

I wouldn't call it a Spring "Break"

Normally I would look forward to spring break as a time to get out of town and visit friends or go somewhere new. Although we did get to do some of that, Ryan and I decided to make this week a "getter done" kind of week.


Goals:

1. Finish our picture collage in the entryway.
2. Begin to redo the office, starting with new furniture.
3. Freshen up the front yard.
4. Watch as much basketball as possible.
5. Check our brackets as often as possible.
6. Somehow begin to repair our doggie destroyed backyard.


Here's what it looked like along the way...

Building office furniture from Ikea

Mowing the front yard

Hanging out with Bella in the driveway.

Planting

More planting

And the biggie- my friend, Allison Bradley's, boss was re-landscaping his yard and needed to get rid of some grass sod that he had, so we transplanted it from his yard to ours. My car is a disaster, but it was well worth it.

And some of the finished products....

Let's Go Fly A Kite

Ryan and I had a great Sunday afternoon outside yesterday at the Kite Festival at Zilker Park. The weather was GORGEOUS!

Bella had lots of fun too but did decide at one point that she needed a little break from playing with all of the kids that were petting her.

Yay for all of the free Austin outdoor events that happen year round. We love it here!

Fun with the Fughums

This weekend Ryan and I went to Kansas City to visit our good friends, Kristin and Clay Fulghum. We'd been wanting to visit for quite and while and were glad that a weekend finally opened up! Most of y'all reading this probably know them, but Lev and I were friends at A&M and then roommates when we moved to Austin. She and Clay got married last Memorial Day and then moved to KC two weeks later so that Clay could get ready for the Bar exam. We miss them TONS in Texas and had so much fun getting to see their new lives.

On the way, we had a layover in Houston where we met up with our good friend Charles for a quick visit. Here we are in the airport...


When we got to Kansas City there was no messin' around. We played some hard core Guitar Hero. I'm terrible at a lot of things that I have attempted in my life, but I don't think I stink as bad at as many things as I do at Guitar Hero. I guess I'm not a "gamer".

Here we are on a break from stinking at Guitar Hero. I'm much more talented at consuming large quantities of popcorn.

We spent part of Saturday afternoon at the Plaza in Kansas City, a great outdoor shopping area. It was super cold for the Texans, but we toughed it out, and it was totally worth it for all of the fun stores!

And, finally, one of the most important parts of this trip for Ryan- eating lots of good Kansas City barbeque. This is another area where I would consider myself above average. It was a great meal! If you ever find yourself in Kansas City, Jack Stack is the place to be!

We had such a fun weekend getting to catch up with good friends. Kristin and Clay, thanks so much for hosting us and showing us the town. We had so much fun and love you guys a ton. We can't wait for the next time!

26.2 miles is a loooong way

Sunday was an exciting and much anticipated day for us. Ryan ran his second Austin Marathon and finished very strong, right at 4 hours. He's been training for this since September, so it was fun to see him finally get to run on the big day.


We had a great support team- our good friends Bart and Jessica from Austin, my old college rommate Katrina as well as her new bf and Ryan's friend Thomas from Beaumont and his gf Shelley. Big props to Thomas for running the last 8 miles with Ryan to keep his spirits high.









mile one: congress avenue






















mile six: south first street

mile eleven: tarrytown

mile twenty: north loop and lamar

(that's me providing some moral support)

mile twenty three: hyde park

mile twenty six point two: congress avenue

members of the support team: katrina and jessica

Congratulations, babe! Your hard work paid off!

In my humble opinion...

these are some great reads. They're all veeery different, some secular, some Christian, some are fiction, some are non-fiction.....

I'm not great at summarizing plots, so you should definitely google the titles if you want some real info.

totally random plot but really good ... it sucks you in

a great story of friendship- lots of great culture too

one of Francine Rivers' books

my all time favorite... so good! I've read it twice

unbelievable true story, totally life-changing and will make you weep

super twisted story...really addicting!

my homegirl, Francine wrote a whole line of books on women of the Bible, they're all really good. I've read Ruth and Esther.

a true story about a guy who, through some crazy circumstances, begins building schools in Pakistan.

an incredible story of two boys in Afghanistan, really sad at several points but also redeeming

Ode to Trog

I don't know about you guys (well, I DO know about some of you!) but I am a total blog stalker. I love to keep up with people through their blogs. I will admit that when I find a blog, I can't wait to see their blog roll (is that what it's called?) so that I get a pass into tons of other blogs. This is a more difficult process if you are using google reader becuase you only see the person's new post and not their actual page, but I still occassionaly find new people!

Anyway, I wanted to give a shout out to my great friend, TRog. Her real name is Tiffany Mendenhall (Rogers was her maiden name), but we've always called her TRog. She writes a great blog and updates it often. I am proud to say that I am the one who talked her into writing a blog...and I have paid for it...truly paid for it, in dollars and cents. Every Friday she does a post called"Fabulous Find Friday". Please let me share with you a few of the items I've purchased because of her...

Hobo clutch/ wallet "the Lauren" in saffron

Dr. Scholl's spray to keep my ballet flats smelling fresh!

a new address stamp... I'd had this on my list for quite a while, but she finally pushed me over the edge.

TONS of new candles

You should all stalk her blog... it's totally worth it!!!

Love you TRog... mean it!