Crazy Animals

We have a dog.  We have an energetic dog.  We have a hyper energetic dog.  She loves to play.  She loves to play with you and her green ball.  She does not entertain herself nor does she like playing with other dogs.  Because of my hyper energetic dog who likes to play with you, we must frequent the dog park.  Unfortunately for Andy and I, we can usually only go on the weekends during the school year.  Thankfully one of the subdivisions close to our house has a dog park.  Otherwise, we would have to take her to George Bush Park which is about a 30+ minute drive depending on traffic and if you hit the stoplights red or green. 

Last weekend I took Maddie to the dog park.  She decided to find the only two mud holes in the entire park and lay in them not once but several times.  She didn't just stand in the mud; she truly layed down with half of her body submerged in muddy water.  It was bad enough that I had to text Andy to bring the truck with her kennel because I was not letting her back in my car.  Of course I have pictures to prove her mudding adventures.

I attempted a selfie with Maddie...

This was a separate weekend when we
played outside at home.  Much cleaner this time!

After we go to the dog park, Maddie crashes.  Sleeps like a baby.  This is the part I love the most.

Who knew when we found Lonestar six and a half years ago that he would turn into this spoiled brat of a cat.  When I say brat, he really is a brat.  He will stand outside of the shower meowing nonstop until you open the door, turn the water on, and let him drink the water.  Weird, I know!  He will meow nonstop when you get home from work to remind you that he has never been fed in his entire life and that he is starving.  He will apparently now stand in the pantry waiting for a treat.  I mean, seriously, what we have done to ourselves!?!

Couple Selfies

Andy and I hang out a lot together which means I take a lot of couple selfies! :)

 

My little brother is engaged!!

My little brother called me last weekend to tell me...

HE'S ENGAGED!

You have no idea how excited I am for him.  I absolutely love his fiance. She is the most perfect woman for him.  She fits in our family so well.  I love both of them very much and am so thrilled that they are getting married.

I try not to be over-involved in my little brother's life.  It's hard sometimes because I just want the best for him and for him to be happy.  I could tell things were really serious between him and Blair, but I have never mentioned the word marriage to him.  Now, Blair and I have made just random comments about a forever future for them, but nothing serious.  A couple of weekends ago, I said something in a text to Blair and him that he needs to get her a ring.  Completely had no clue that he was already planning something.  Ahhh!!  I am so excited for them!

He did so good with the ring too!  Blair loves it, and I think it's just beautiful.

Love these two so much!

Basketball Season

Basketball season is officially over.  It's always bittersweet.  You're happy because you're not as busy but sad because you always want to make it the State tournament.  The Taylor Varsity Girls had an extremely successful season making it the Regional Quarterfinals.  Andy is truly blessed at Taylor.  He works with incredible coaches and gets the support he needs as a coach.

Andy and I before one of the playoff games.  Trust me, he cannot wear jeans and t-shirt to coach in.  It was dress pants and a polo during the season and a suit for the playoff games.

Here is a picture of the team after one of the playoff games.  Yes, the head coach was definitely pregnant.  We were sure she would have baby Skylar at any moment.

Andy's mom and grandmother made it to some of the playoff games as well.

Backyard Fix Up

The previous owners of our house, we are assuming, had a fetish for bricks.  Our entire fence in the backyard is lined with bricks.  I can't even begin to tell you how many there are.  Andy cleaned up one of the corners of the yard one weekend.  He did such an awesome job!  The worst part was picking up all the bricks.  I'm really not kidding... they are everywhere!

Before pic.  Last summer when we bought the house.

After pic.

This pile had over 120 bricks.

This pile had over 75 bricks.

14 Days of I Love You

Andy and I don't really celebrate Valentine's Day.  Seriously.  We don't even buy a card for each other.  Maybe one year we'll decide to go all out, but right now we are content with loving each other and surprising each other throughout the year.

With that being said, I actually did something this year for Andy for Valentine's Day.  It was not actually planned originally for Valentines, but that's when it happened to work out.  For Christmas, I was going to do "12 Days of Why I Love You," but with basketball season and his dad's cancer it was just tough for me to get anything done.  We had a couple of unplanned days off from school due to the cold/icy weather so I decided to do "14 Days of I Love You" since Valentines was coming up.  Trust me, I am not creative enough to come up with this idea on my own because I totally got it from Pinterest.  However, everything I made was my own creation.  I made 10 gift tags and 4 cards that had quotes, sayings, Bible verses or song lyrics on them.  Each day Andy got a gift tag or card with a little treat - candy, Planters mixed nuts, etc.  I know he loved each one of them.

Our marriage has been kind of rocky (for lack of a better word) for the past 2-3 years.  We absolutely love each other without a doubt.  There aren't "problems" in our marriage at all.  Our love has just been tested and stretched.  His dad was diagnosed with cancer, we've been trying to get pregnant with no success, we moved our entire life to a new city, and so on.  These kinds of the things will just really test your marriage.  I just wanted Andy to know that even though our life has been turned upside down in more ways than one that I still love him through it all.  I think he got the message. :)

Major Update

I had planned on getting back to my blog, and then life just got in the way.  Having 11-12 hour workdays four out of the five days that I work makes this girl pretty tired!  Not to mention the school work I do on the weekends.  Even though I try to keep that to minimum.  I always tell our friends (the few we have) that our social lives pretty much end during the school year, but once we get adjusted to our new lives here in Katy, I think it'll get better.

For Christmas Andy bought me a Cuttlebug.  It's an embosser and diecut machine made by Cricut for scrapbooking.  Essentially all I use it for is to make designs in my paper that are raised, like in the photo below.  I have used it a few times.  It's super easy to use, and I love the enhancements it makes to my cards.

 

I wanted some new dishes, and of course, Ikea had just what was I looking for.  Something basic, simple, and classic.

Andy's mom came to visit us one weekend.  She came up on a Friday so she could go to one of Andy's basketball games.  While Andy's dad was sick, she couldn't make it to many of his games.  This was also the first "normal" time we were able to spend together after Andy's dad died.  It was a very nice weekend!  That Saturday we went to the boat show.  I like going just to look at the campers because I could care less about all of the fishing stuff.

For my mom's birthday, we got her a Coach purse.  This was my first ever Coach purchase.  I got it at the outlet mall for a really good price!  She loved it!

One random weekend, Andy got a wild hair and went to Hobby Lobby with me.  He decided we could buy some decor for the house - yay!  I had honestly been waiting to make any purchases for the house until the summer when I could really shop, and by then we would know what our cost of living was.  So when Andy wanted to buy some things, I took advantage.

 

 

We really need an entry table for all of our mail and junk because right now it just piles up on the table or on my crafting counter.  We also need a buffet table that we are going to use as our liquor storage and whatever else can fit.  I want to re-purpose both of these pieces of furniture in hopes that it will save us money in the long run.  One of the ladies I work with said that she went to several goodwill stores and found a dresser to re-purpose.  I had never ever thought about going to a goodwill store for furniture.  Did goodwill even have furniture?  I didn't have a clue until she said something.  I told Andy about it and we found this piece as our entry table at one of the local goodwill stores.  It cost $13!!!  You have to be kidding me!  What a bargain!  I am hoping to stain it, paint it and fix it up over spring break.

For Super Bowl Sunday we didn't go anywhere.  We stayed at home and made our own little football snacks.  Andy made some very yummy margaritas for us as well.  I was disappointed with the commercials though because that's really all I watch.  I watched the actual game when I was younger and the Cowboys were winning.  But now, I usually don't even know who's playing in it.