True Love

As you already know, we are dog people.  We love our dogs.  We have poured time, energy and our resources into our sweet Deacon & Mercedes.  Do they love us back? Sure. Do they love us more than anything else in their little doggie lives? Not quite.  Only one holds the key to Deacon's heart. She's soft, curvy and always a good time.  She's his trusty tennis ball.

"Protection means sleeping with one eye open"

"Can you tell I'm annoyed when you touch my ball?"

"Seriously, it's mine...don't touch!"

"You want some of this craziness?"

BFF! (Best Friends Forever!)

"I poop on your stupid ball"

-Kyle & Stacie

Our weekend visitor

This past weekend my mom made her first visit to Austin.  She had been waiting for a long weekend and one finally came around.  Kyle & I love having visitors, especially family, so we excited to have her!

The majority of what we did consisted of eating and shopping- my favorite combo!  There are some amazing outlets down in San Marcos, so we spent the day there on Saturday spending all of our Christmas money.

Sunday was a beautiful day so we headed down to tan off-leash dog park downtown to enjoy the weather. If you haven't been, dog parks are actually quite entertaining.  Even if you don't have a dog.  It's just fun to watch these ecstatically happy dogs run around and play with each other. Deacon & Mercedes were definitely in the ecstatic dog category...

The park, Town Lake, is located right downtown on the Colorado river.  So, the dogs can jump in the water or they get hot.  That is an important option for our two who do not do well in the Texas heat (the short muzzle). Apparently, boxers rate a 1 out of 5 on heat tolerance.  I think summer may be a challenge! They also rate 2 out of 5 on cold tolerance- so apparently only people in San Diego should own boxers.  Interesting...

After our time at the park, we went out the dinner at a local restaurant named 'Moonshine'.  It came highly recommended to us by a few friends so we decided to check it out.  The food style was 'fancy southern'- can it get any better than deep-fried asparagus and creamy, gooey macaroni and cheese big enough to feed a family of four?

They bring popcorn to your table when they seat you...

Mason Jars for drinks

The dinner was phenomenal, although we all felt like we needed to be rolled out of there on a flatbed truck.  My mom left yesterday afternoon to head back to Virginia. It was a great trip and we miss her already! 

-Stacie 

Our newest edition- Felipe

As you may or may not know, I have a special place in my heart for all things animal.  Strangely enough, this sometimes even includes animals that are not "real".  As a child I had a collection of stuffed animals that not only had names but had life stories and personalities.  So, when the opportunity arose to add a pink yard flamingo, with seasonal appropriate outfits, to our family I jumped at the opportunity!

Meet Felipe.  This past weekend we had quite a bit of rain. So, of course Felipe had to put on his rain slicker and rain hat!

Currently, it has stopped raining and is actually kind of warm. But, in the spirit of it still being January, Texas or not, Felipe is now wearing his scarf and hat set.  

I've added a 'Flamingo Watch' on the side to keep Felipe's current attire on show. Hope you enjoy! 

-Stacie 

My husband: the uber man

I would like to take a moment to acknowledge the fact that my husband is quite possibly the modern day equivalent of the 'Renaissance Man' of TJ's time (yes, being from Virginia does qualify me to refer to Thomas Jefferson as TJ). Since you cannot know Kyle as well as I do, you may not be away of the myriad of things that he as good at. And no, I am not kidding. It can give one quite the inferiority complex. Not that I don't lovingly refer to myself as "Mary Poppins: Practically Perfect in every way" but that is another issue entirely.

For starters, Kyle is academically intelligent. He graduated from the University of Edinburgh (recently ranked #20 in the world) with distinction. That's not to say that he didn't work his little butt off (literally, he lost 20 lbs in Edinburgh) but if I had put in the same amount of effort I don't think distinction would have been their name for it. In his spare time he likes to read books pertaining to the economy or biographies of past US Presidents. I am not saying this makes him smart, just well rounded. He also spends his fare share of time reading ESPN and following college sports like they are going out of style. Which I am sorry to say is rubbing off on me and I have even found myself interested in what the ESPN announcers have to say and may or may not listen to Mike & Mike on ESPN radio. Whatever.

Well, so far these may all seem like normal things to be good at. But, Kyle is also good at mechanical things. And that is what puts him in the category of uber man. He can fix anything that is broken- seriously. I can't even put together a chair from Staples without getting in a fit. But not Kyle. This weekend he took apart our little Abba and here's the clincher- put him back together again. That's right, our little demon possessed VW is now back and running for only $30. Kyle told me that when we bought he could "fix anything" that went wrong with it. I only halfway believed him, I must admit. But he has proved himself and I am proud as punch! Seriously, it is like winning the lottery. He can get a good job, he can fix stuff around the house and he's cute! What more could a girl ask for?

-Stacie

Wanted: Beetle Exorcism

As our loyal blog followers know, I convinced Stacie that we should buy a vintage VW Beetle upon returning from Scotland (which we named Abba). My logic, sound as always, was based on several facts. First, we didn't have a car (or job at that point) to return to and I knew we could find a Beetle on the cheap. Second, a Beetle was my first car so I have mechanical experience with it along with a sentimental soft spot in my heart. Third, I argued that no matter what goes wrong with those cars the fix is always inexpensive, particularly since I could do it myself. You now have the backstory.

My company provided me with a car, so Stacie has been the primary Beetle driver. The car rarely sees the highway (intentionally!) and is used as little as possible. Still, I've been feeling guilty driving a brand new car while she's rolling a glorified German go-cart with safety features that are rudimentary at best. The AM only radio is pretty sweet though. This week I talked her into letting me put some time behind the VW wheel and I was rewarded with an attempt on my life. Not by Stacie, by the car.

While leaving the Wachovia bank parking lot on Tuesday, I accelerated normally to get into the flow of traffic. For anyone who's not experienced driving an old Beetle that means I pegged it in an attempt to utilize all of the 60 horsepower the engine can generate. Once I got into traffic, I let off the accelerator but to my bewilderment the car continued to pick-up speed. 'No worries' I thought, I'll just wiggle the gas peddle as it's probably stuck. You see, the gas pedal is literally connected to the carburetor by a thin cable. Your foot moves down, the carb mouth opens and drinks sweet petrol and the engine goes faster. Here's where it gets hairy, the pedal wasn't stuck, the cable had snapped while I was flooring it so the car was literally in perpetual wide open! I pushed in the clutch to get into neutral but the engine was screaming at me louder than I could bear so I jammed it back into 4th and was off to the races. My only option was to find a place to pull over and cut the engine but it was raining like crazy so my options were limited.

I was flying through traffic like a madman (someone may have though I'd stolen the car and was running from the police if I were in something other than a 1973 Beetle!). Working the clutch in and out while literally standing on the brake I felt like Jeff Gordon flying through an office park near my work. I finally found an covered parking area and screeched around the corner, e-braking it into a parking spot and turning off the key. Heart pounding and half chuckling at the thought of how ridiculous I must have looked flying through the parking lot I called Stacie for a ride back to work.

Having survived the Beetle's attempt on my life I'm happy to say that my original argument for buying the car has been validated. Not only can we fix the car ourselves but a new throttle cable kit only set us back $17.99. Shipping the parts was actually the most expensive part. So for now Abba is sitting in the driveway reflecting on what he did to me while I wait for the parts to arrive so we can get back on the road.

-Kyle

Spokristmas

Well, Christmas has come and gone once again. As we all tend to say, "Can you believe it is almost January?!". I for one cannot. But, this was a Christmas of firsts for us. Most importantly, our first Christmas with a wee one as part of the extended family. Baby Marek (or as I like to call him BH aka "Baby Heather") is the first baby on either sides of our families and we thoroughly enjoyed doting over his every smile and coo- which were quite a few actually. I am certainly hoping that our future children will have the same cheery disposition. But, with 1/2 of my DNA I seriously doubt it. I wouldn't describe myself as "cheery". Here's to hoping that Kyle's DNA will win through on that one!

We got to spend the entire week in Spokane and mostly relaxed and hung out with family and friends. We were really excited to get to spend time with some of Kyle's good friends from U of I. On Wednesday, Kyle went skiing for the day (I stayed behind to help Sally unpack her newly moved house) and then we all got to meet up for dinner afterwards. It's so fun to see our old friends and catch up with them.

The gang at dinner

Since Kyle & I weren't around last Christmas, we got to experience a few Christmas traditions for the first time this year. I'm a huge fan of family traditions (Kyle & I have established quite a few of our own- some quite unique i.e.- an unhealthy favoritism towards foul food and inappropriate movies as a birthday celebration- to each his own I say!)

One of the new family traditions for Kyle's family is a ginger bread house building contest. Kyle & I are both surprisingly anal and methodical- so our house won for "best precision". It was a beaut if you ask me. All of our rows even had color patterns- can it get any better than that? Edible organization....stop my beating heart.

The other houses were quite good too, just not precise. Sally won for "best roof" and Heather and Brandon won for "most candy on a house". So you could say that we were all winners. I however would not. I would say that we were winners, because do pretty roofs and lots of candy beat out precision? You be the judge.

The gingerbread houses (ours if on the left)

H & B creating a masterpiece

Sale family masterpiece

The Christmas reindeer

This year I took it upon myself to become a little more crafty. At Thanksgiving, I had my talented Aunt Liz teach me some new knitting skills and I turned out this scarf for Heather as part of her Christmas gift. She was surprised at my knitting skills and to her credit- so was I! I got some knitting needles as one of my Christmas gifts, so this 28 year old granny is going to be getting her knit on! Watch me go!

My scarf- not bad!

It was a fun week, but Deacon & Mercedes were pretty happy to have us back. They keep following us around the house- possibly out of fear, possibly out of boredom? But either way, I think they're glad to back with the fam. I actually kind of missed Austin during out trip- does that mean that Texas is getting to me? Scary thought.

-Stacie

What really matters...

Lately I have been thinking a lot about my life and what I am doing with it. Moving across the world and moving back in a year will cause a person to do a bit of soul searching. I just want to be sure that when time flies by and turn around and am in my 50s that I don't sit back and say "Man, what did I do with my life?". All that to say, I'm not sure I have figured it out. But I am closer than I was and have a few ideas.

But, maybe that is not the answer.

This morning on the way to work my car ran out of gas. I would like to take this moment to note that the steering wheel in our lovely 1973 VW blocks the speedometer and gas gauge (it doesn't matter for the speed, because I can never get going fast enough to matter). But the gas gauge is a different story. You can't tell when you're out of gas unless you pull yourself up over the steering wheel and really look- this takes effort and the ability to remember to check. Two things that I don't always possess. So, this morning little Abba just gave out in the middle of a busy road. And to say the least, I was a bit freaked. He wouldn't even start enough for me to pull over to the side of the road. I panicked. And then- a homeless man came over and offered to help me push the car across the busy street to a gas station. He didn't have to do that. But I am so grateful for his willingness to- 1-stop what he was doing- 2-notice someone in need and 3-being willing to help.

Maybe that is the answer. Not what I have done by the time I'm 50, but what I have noticed, who I have helped and the time I have taken out of my day to think of someone and something other than myself.