Why Andy Why?

So every November Andy grows a moustache. Every November I hate it. I get over it though because him and a bunch of guys from work do it to raise money to prostate cancer. Also Andy LOVES moustaches and walks around with his chest a little more puffed out and is all "I'm a real man now". It's funny and kinda cute, but shhh, don't tell him I said so because moustachiod men can't be cute.

A couple of nights ago, in his testosterone-y high, he decided shaving his head would be a good idea. I disagreed but didn't think he would do it. I was wrong.

Gross moustache, but still cute


Threatening me that he would do it. I still thought he was bluffing.


Realizing he just may be bored, sleep deprived, and crazy enough to do it


At this point I couldn't stop laughing and saying "Ewwwwww.....you look SO creepy" Yes, I'm a great wife.


Finished product. Andy loves it, me not to much. It gave us a fun night of entertainment at least.

Friday Night Anniversary Date

So I don't think I've been too crazy emotional from the pregnancy (Andy may tell you a different story though) but I do think I may be a little needy. Okay, a lot. There's been a whole bunch of "Honey, tell me about your love for me...my love bank is low". (As a side note, if you ever want to see an Engineer freeze up, tell them to pour their heart out and articulate their feelings ;) ) So anyways, I told him I wanted to do something special for our anniversary. He delivered. A few days before I got an Evite from him inviting me on a date and an awesome itinerary of what we would be doing Friday night to celebrate. It included taking the bus downtown and walking around to all my favorite places. I was a stinker and went for a three mile hike that morning and so I asked if we could tweek the itinerary a little bit. So we ended up driving downtown and eating at Romeo's and playing miniature golf and then getting a big Icee and coming home and watching Swamp People. Yeah, first two things were Andy's ideas and the last two were this trashy reality show-lovin, sugar-fiening pregnant lady's ideas!

Leaving for our date!


Dinner at Romeo's

Brushetta= one of my favorite things in the world

We shared lasagna and it was GINORMOUS and oh so tasty


Then went to Peter Pan mini golf for a very hot game of golf that Andy rigged the score card and let me win.



It was a perfect date and we had fun reminiscing on how fast and amazing the past five years have been. I will spare you all the husband doting, because I do my fair share of it one here and hopefully it is obviously how much I adore my amazing husband. I will say this though, I made thr best decision of my life five years ago when I married my best friend.

Friday night fun

I actually remembered to bring my camera out and about on our Friday night adventure this weekend. Thought I would go a little crazy and post about something other than our baby or the house!

We headed downtown with some friends to see a play in Zilker Park. A friend from church was in it, plus is was a Shakespeare play set in a 1960's beach theme- how can that not be awesome really? Luckily we got there early enough to eat our picnic dinner and hang out and to see Ryan (our friend) perform for about 5 minutes before it just started pouring down rain. Come on rain! You gotta start up 5 minutes into the play?




So plan B was what plan B should always be....go eat dessert. We loaded up our soggy chairs and went over to the Hyde Park area and got some gelato. Mmmm Mmmm Mmmmm.

Happy girls= girls with gelato


So there is some proof that we do more than hang out at Lowe's all weekend!

Inks Lake Camping 2011

So every year our young marrieds group at church goes camping, this was our fourth year of this super fun tradition. I absolutely love this awesome group of people that we get to call our friends and have no doubt that they are one of the biggest reasons we love Austin so much. God blessed us with this group when we moved and knew nobody in the entire city just four years ago. Anywho, enough of the sap, they are alright ;)

Our group!

Had to get a silly shot!

The first picture I've posted of myself since I got pregnant, so there you go. There's the belly to those of you who have been asking for a bump shot.

So I was brave/dumb and decided I would do two nights of camping this year- normally I have a one night limit. Not really sure what the thought process was there with me deciding three days in the 95+ degree heat 5 months pregnant would be a good idea but hey I survived and I was proud I did it.

So we went to Inks Lake, which is about an hour west of us (I think). It is a beautiful park with lots to do. One of my favorite things we did was rent canoes with a bunch of people and there was a pretty serious canoe battle going on. It was intense and luckily I was in a canoe with my friends Rachel and Jessica who are uber strong and were leave the boys in our dust which was pretty awesome. Yeah girl power!

Love this picture of andy watching Molly fetch a tree branch in the water

so here is our site, I think everyone is up and working on dinner, which was super yummy fajitas.


A rare moment- Molly worn out.



Saturday morning breakfast tacos!



So, it was an awesome trip and I'm glad we were able to go camping a couple of times this year because I know it will be a while before we go again. I don't think I am outdoorsy enough to be taking baby L camping anytime soon. It is a shame though because camping is such a good way to enjoy this beautiful place we get to live, spend time with friends, and of course eat s'mores :)

Good times are here

So far this morning I booked ticket to New York for a girl's weekend with my nearest and dearest friends from Oklahoma(followed by dance party to Empire State of Mind in the living room), migas at my favorite taqueria, and then dinner tonight with sweet Dinah and Kim- just a plain ol GREAT day. I love having something to look forward to and am really looking forward to getting some warmer weather, getting out of the house, and having some fun this Spring. Hope everyone is having an awesome Saturday!

Super Bowl Par-tay 2011

So we hosted the Super Bowl party again this year and because last year we had a serious seating shortage, thought maybe we could do a little better this year. Now my simple minded idea was to "We need more chairs". Makes sense. We could do that. Andy is a little more ambitious than me though. So he did what anyone would do when they've got a whole lotta people coming over. Built stadium seating for couches.

So Saturday Andy and Mr. Ryan Morrow built the platforms. It is sturdy. Like a rock. They were proud and it was cute (sorry boys but it was). Boys+powertools+wood+anything excessive (especially to watch football)= testosterone high.

Here are the manly men


So it was a great party and just like last year I'm reminded of the fact that one of the biggest blessing in our life is all the wonderful friendships we have. Our house is not big. At all. And people know when they come over it will be crowded and loud and there is a big chance you might have to sit on the floor. Despite that, 32 people came over last night and it was simply a great night.

This was just SOME of the food. I may be rolling myself inflated self around for a few days but totally worth it!

Who needs Black Eyed Peas when you can weld and hang out in the garage for the half time?

Apples to Apples > Football



Did everyone have a good Super Bowl? Are you bloated with Velveeta today (don't be ashamed I'm guessing 75% of Americans are today? What commercials do I need to watch?

Yet another reason I am happy December is here

Because it is no longer November- or Mo-vember as my moustache loving husband celebrates by growing a moustache the last couple of Novembers. I can't complain too much because it is for a good cause, raises money for prostate cancer. I'm still not exactly sure how having growing a moustache raises money but his team has raised something like $700 so far.
Here is a link about it.
Anyways, I suggested (read: told) Andy this morning since it is now December it comes off. Hallelujah. I think some men can look good with moustaches but I think Andy just looks creepy. Way creepy.
So here it is on all it's glory. It has been funny to see reactions to it, the guys have all been way supportive of the mustachio (What is it with guys and facial hair?) and the girls tend to just give me a sympathetic look. Thanks ladies. Thanks for nothing guys ;)



Goodbye Moustache!
Hello cute Andy!

Crazy Aggies

On Saturday our sweet friends the Morrows called us up and invited us to the A&M OU game in College Station. We jumped at the chance and even though we aren't much into sports, knew it would be a good game and cool experience. Well it sure was. OU was favored to win, but A&M won! It was a good game and I'm glad they won because, well, those Aggies are kinda crazy ;) So many little phrases and traditions and I had no idea what they were saying a lot of the time but really cool to see thousands of people so passionate about their school.

Brave or dumb to wear our OU shirt with 80,000 Aggies?





Thanks Ryan and Elana for an awesome night! We had so much fun!

Spooky trip to Dallas

Friday afternoon we headed up to Dallas to visit the Andy's sister's family- the MAPES! Got to hang out with our nieces for a few hours and then that night the adults went to "Cutting Edge"- the world's largest haunted house. It was legit too, had the Guinness world record plaque and everything. It was in a old meat packing factory so just that alone was pretty creepy and made it a pretty cool place to have a haunted house. It took over an hour to walk through the whole thing, and had some pretty cool features.

Waiting in line for fun/terror to begin!

Only group shot we got...

Although the haunted house was fun, by far my favorite part of the evening was John's cousin Tim that we just meet for the first time. He is an undertaker. For reals. He had the most crazy awesome stories I ever heard. What a gift God gave him to be able to do what he does and have such a strong stomach b/c just hearing some of the stories he told us made me queasy! Him and his wife were super nice and we had a wonderful dinner at their house.

The exit to the haunted house was bubbles. Not like a few bubbles, like a 8 foot wall of solid bubbles you had to just dive into and walk through for a while and find the exit. It.was.awesome.

Kari and I in bubble world!

Here is a video about the haunted house, if you are interested....

Livin la vida Austin

Last night was a good one.

I had a true blue Austin-y night out on the town and since I am suppose to be working but we are having major technical issues (both pro and con of working from home) thought I would share my adventure.

Let's start with my companions for the evening- my way awesome friends John and Kim. John is the coolest. Period. I have to nod knowingly every once in a while and pretend like I know what band/current event/whatever he is talking about so my complete lack of coolness isn't found out and he reevaluates our friendship. Kim is the kindest, most gentle spirit I've ever know and one of my best friends in the true sense of the word. So yeah, that's why I had a good night- I got to hang out with these guys.


Our night started at Casa de Luz- an organic, vegan, macrobiotic- well just throw about every hippie word you can use to describe food- kind of restaurant. What an experience. We started with salads, broccoli soup, and twig tea (ps. John wins the quote of the night for "This is the best twig tea of my life"). Then we were brought our entrees. I won't even try to explain what all it was because, well, I don't know what all it was. Most of it was good, I would even go out on a twig (hehe) to say some of it was down right delicious.


So after you have a healthy macrobiotic meal the clear choice for dessert is ginormous donuts of course, so we went to Gordoughs. This may be hard to express is written form, but let me try. MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm
mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmMMMMMMMMMMmmmmmmmm.
For reals dude.
Amazing. If I knew how to write a haiku, I would write one about the spiritual connection I had with our coconut and chocolate covered raspberry filled donut. Yes, it's haiku worthy.


I know this is an awful picture, but it captures the moment so well. We were all happy and excited to tear into that donut that we were giddy.


Gordough was along with some other trailers (I'm begining to think some of the best food comes from trailers) in a really neat little area with tons of picnics tables, quintessential Austin experience to eat a table with strangers with food from a trailer.


To finish off the evening we did what I like to do every weekend- attend a dracula themed moon bounce party. Yes, you read that right. And yes, it was awesome. Not many pictures of that, because, well we were busy getting our moon bounce on!



So that was my fun Friday night out enjoying this amazing city I get to live it and my even more amazing friends. Who knew perfect Friday night started with twig tea and ended with a moon bounce?

Celebrations

So I say this every year, but I feel like every year my life gets better and better so I'm not lying when I say this is possibly one of the best birthdays I ever had. I think part of the reason it was so special is because it had been about three weeks since I spent anytime with friends and just felt so disconnected from my life. I've spend a lot of time in Tulsa lately (praise God that I've had the freedom to be able to do that!). My dad is getting better and better every day and his positive attitude and even more passionate view on living life definitely had something to do with this birthday being such a celebration.
So for starters, on of my best friends Sara and her hubby Drew came down for the weekend! Yea! We always have a blast together and I'm so glad they came down.
Okay, so Friday we hung out and went to Alamo and saw "The Other Guys", it was so funny and I love it. Then Friday night we went to Hula Hut! I was so overwhelmed by love that night with so many friends coming, it was just a perfect evening.


Rachel, Brandy, Elana


Sara and Drew



My best friends from work- Kim, Dinah, and John!


The Gang!

Then we got up Saturday morning and went to SCHLITTERBAHN! Oh yes, it deserves all caps- it is the ginormous and one of the best water parks in the world (from what I've heard, I haven't personally checked that out, although I wouldn't mind that job!) Here's a shot of us before we adventured out!


We had big plans to go see the Spazmatics downtown Saturday night, but Schlitterbahn kicked out butts so we went to my favorite mexican food place, ate huge amounts of fajitas and then came home and vegged out out. Ahhh...it was perfect. Spezmatics will always be there, a night in with friends- much better!

Then the icing on my birthday cake of a weekend was that a bunch of friends from American Cancer Society got together on Sunday to catch up at the Deep Eddy Pool. That place is amazing. I think it's like the oldest public swimming pool in Texas, it's huge and just so pretty and definitely one of those Austin treasure that you can only find out about through word of mouth (one of my favorite things about this city- always some new place to explore). Anyways, it was SO great to catch up with everyone, it's probably good I work form home, cause I have some awesome co-workers that I wouldn't probably just sit around and want to goof off with all day! There was probably about 20 people that came, here are just a few of the lovely ladies I get to work with!



Thanks for all the sweet cards, texts, and calls everyone, I love you all!

Okies comes down for GIRLS WEEKEND!

So on May 1st one of my besty best friends- Sara-is getting married! Yea! She is having 2 bachelorette parties and the first one was down here in Austin this weekend. I had not meet some of Sara's work friends so I wasn't really sure what the weekend would be like. They were so super awesome and I'm sad it took us this long to finally meet up! We had tons of fun despite nothing working out as we planned- it was cold, raining, windy, just icky weather, we have no heater right now so the house was pretty cold . Then Sara and Chandi got really sick! We had all sorts of fun stuff planned to do, but plan B of pulling the bed in the living room and having a weekend long slumber party was pretty awesome.

So Friday night we went to Chuy's!



Then Saturday we went to IKEA and Round Rock outlets for a bit then Sara started getting a fever and so we headed straight home.
Poor little sickly Sara and Chandi


So we layed around and watched movies and ate lots of food.


Saturday night we just went and ate at Cheddar's since it was close and the girls still weren't feeling well.



Know Sara and Lisa for 12+ years!!! Craziness.


Can you tell they are sisters?

Then Saturday night we were feeling a little more feisty and so we danced! Stacey and Rene taught me the electric slide and then we attempt to learn the Thriller dance.

Lisa and I free styling. And by free styling I mean being spazzy and weird of course.


So the weekend didn't go as planned, but sometimes those are the best times. I am heading up to OKC in 2 weeks for her other bachlorette par-tay and cannot wait! Sara and Lisa have been my friends forever, but now I've got 3 more beautiful friends and look forward to hanging out with them again in just 2 weeks!