House Update

Our latest home improvement project has been the front yard. We thought we could wait until next spring, but once our house was painted the bad landscaping really was noticeable. We bought a few bushes, some mulch, and surrounded the flower bed with some stones that were in the backyard. It really looks great, here are some pictures:

(What is used to look like)

(For some reason this house always looks more "blue" when I take pictures of it.... in person it's actually a lot darker gray)

(we planted 4 gardenias and 1 hibiscus)

(We haven't had a lot of rain and they are rationing the lawn watering, so our grass isn't doing so hot.... well, actually "hot" is exactly the problem)


(The hibiscus)

(The hibiscus)

(the gardenias)

Put the Shopping back in Grocery Shopping!

Cody and I have always shared a love for Target. It's consistently clean and welcoming, I always find great deals and they have EVERYTHING! This weekend we found ourselves at Target (not surprisingly) and we were delaying leaving Target to go grocery shopping, as grocery shopping is always a dreaded task. We were not at our usual Target and we realized that the one we were at was a Super Target! We decided to try grocery shopping there and we were pleasantly surprised that we actually liked it. We found ourselves saying things like "I'm confused because I know that I am grocery shopping, but I don't hate it..." and "wow, these are better deals than HEB!"

There is a new Target opening in October RIGHT by where we live and I really hope it is a Super Target so I can do all of my grocery shopping there. Thanks Target!

Coincidence? I think not.

One of my favorite things about living in Austin is a place called Tiff's Treats. They deliver fresh, hot cookies (and other treats) made to order. They have a store downtown where you can also pick up their delicious treats. My only sadness is that we live out of their delivery zone, so we can only have them delivered when we are hanging out at our friend Heidi's condo downtown. So, a couple of months ago I wrote them an email telling them how much I love their cookies and how I wish that they had another location in North Austin. I even mentioned a specific area (the Arboretum) that would be perfect for their new store.



Well...this morning I received an email from my friend Heidi (who shares our love for this sweet treat delivery service) with this announcement from Tiff's Treats. Maybe it is a coincidence that they just happen to be opening a new location exactly where I suggested just a couple of months after I suggested it. But I think not.

Puppy Playing

Our house right now is either nap time or playing time. These two dogs chase each other all over the house playing with each other and I of course had to video tape it. In the video you will see Rocky's signature move.... the back leg bite and drag. Then if you listen closely, you will hear Sugar's signature move.... the bite until you get something, complete with her jaw chomping at the air. Seeing this video you may think Sugar isn't enjoying the playing... but she ALWAYS starts it. For those of you thinking of getting two dogs may I remind you that you will also need two crates... as you can see we have two crates the size of our couch in our living room... .classy.

and here is nap time....

I like this picture because it not only shows her size, but it also shows her different colored eyes.... She's got these crazy colored eyes (which are awesome) and after a visit to the vet he said she's perfectly healthy and can see fine... he can't explain her eyes!

oops....we did it again.

Someone needs to send a psychiatrist to our household.... we've lost our minds. Today we got ANOTHER dog.... seriously.

We've been talking about it for a while because we have loved having Rocky so much and we felt like both us and Rocky would benefit from another dog. So a couple weeks ago we started looking and as of today we can now welcome the newest member of our family.....Sugar.

She's a 2 month lab mix who is even more calm then Rocky! The two of them (so far) get along wonderful except that Rocky is a little jealous of the attention. I'm sure there will be plenty more pictures coming soon.

Housewarming Party

Since Madelyn and I have been married we have never hosted a party.... so as soon as we got the new house we both knew it was time to have one. The party also gave us a nice deadline of when all the first phase home improvement projects had to be completed. If you aren't feeling motivated to clean your house, unpack boxes, or do home improvement projects hosting a party is the perfect cure.

We've lived in Austin for two years and have been really lucky in finding some great friends. We had 15 people in attendance! We like how my sister put it "That's like 7 friends a year".... At this rate we'll have 21 people at a party next year!

We cooked some hamburgers on the new grill, ate some awesome snacks prepared by Madelyn, we hung out on the patio and then we broke out Rockband..... the ultimate party machine. At some point someone took my camera and started taking pictures, when I uploaded the pictures the next day I was surprised to find 45 pictures I didn't take..... it was the coolest surprise. I'll let the pictures do the story telling..... (click any of them to see the entire album.... or visit Tobi's blog.)

We got to break out the leaves for the table.... Madelyn definitely got her mothers table setting skills..... the table looked great.

Jarrett, Tobi (in the chair), Jessica and Jason waiting for their hamburgers.... I let everyone know that I had no idea what I was doing with the grill.... but the burgers ended up tasting fantastic.

Jason, his wife Diana, Madelyn and Heidi hanging out outside.

Jonathan, Heidi, Jarrett and Madelyn hovering over the snack table.

Jessica, Brandon, Jonathan rockin' the mic, Mike (our neighbor) on guitar, Jarrett on bass, Krista (our neighbor and Mike's wife) watching from the table, and Tobi on drums. It was an awesome combination.

Another good combination.... I'm pretty sure we're rocking out "Dani California" by the Red Hot Chili Peppers.

I know this picture is out of focus but I had to include it. Madelyn is yelling the words to a song..... this is an awesome picture

Another out of focus picture of Madelyn getting down with Rockband. The thing I like about both of these pictures is that she wasn't even playing the game at the time. She was just participating....

This was during the funniest version of "Margaritaville" ever sung.... complete with Tobi's awesome drum solo's and the smooth island voice of Jonathan.

I hog the microphone... I know.

This wins the "funniest picture of the night" award. We bought some balloons for our mailbox so that our guests could find our house, but by the end of the night the balloons were dying. Jonathan took the balloons and gave us his saddest "my balloons are dying" face. I will laugh every time I see this picture.

I would say that our first ever party was a hit..... I think everyone enjoyed themselves and I'm sure parties at our new house will be a tradition for years to come.

Mates of State

Last night we went to see one of our favorite bands Mates of State. This concert ended up being on the same weekend as Rot Rally (a big biker festival) and Texas Pride Fest. I can't imagine two more different groups of people being downtown.... someone didn't look at the calender when scheduling these two festivals. I knew it was Rot Rally, but I just wasn't prepared for the amount of bikers there would be. They were everywhere..... bikes lined the downtown streets three deep, the roads were covered in all sorts of motorcycles, and the sidewalls were full of leather..... and then there was us: Me, Madelyn, Tobi, Jessica and her friend Brandon. We were definitely out of place, but seeing Mates of State was well worth it.

They put on an awesome show.... Madelyn danced and sang her heart out! We were also lucky to see two great opening bands so that made waiting around in the HEAT a lot less horrible. We're a little tired today because we stayed up WAY past our bedtime.... Mates of State didn't come on stage until midnight and we didn't get home until 2:00am. But it was all worth it!

Madelyn hates carrying her purse and would rather leave it at home or in the car anywhere we go (does anyone else have this problem?), since she left her purse in the car she didn't have her ID. So she got special stamps on her hands that meant she couldn't drink alcohol... which doesn't mean much to us since we're always the non-drinkers at the party.

We were able to get some great "seats" up on a platform so that everyone could see. The bad news was there wasn't a fan pointed our way.... it was a HOT night! Emo's is an indoor/outdoor venue... it has a roof over the main floor, but the rest of the venue is outside. It's like going to a concert in a hot garage!

(Jessica, Tobi and Madelyn after the show)


(We are two very sweaty and happy people)

Sometimes you just don't have a camera.

This morning I was looking through some of the pictures I have on my cell phone... and I thought it would be appropriate the share some of them here. I'm WAY behind on the whole "Internets" thing, so I was unaware that I could text message pictures from my phone to my email.... I know, it's almost as if I just discovered that you can buy butter in the store rather then churning it.

Anyway... here are some random pictures from the past few months!

I assume that most of the pictures of our future (very future) children will be on my cell phone. Here's why....Dogs are a lot like children when it comes to pictures, they don't really "hold still" for very long. So the cell phone is usually the nearest thing! I think this is a picture we sent to Tobi with a message saying "Can Bluebonnet come to the park with us"?

This is a picture I sent to Madelyn while she was at work. I just wanted to give her a "cuteness" heart attack at her desk. I think the mission was successfull.

This is a picture I snapped of Rocky while we were moving.... there wasn't a whole lot of room in the car for him amongst all the boxes.... I imagine him saying "Um, hey guys, I'm a little squished back here".

As far as cell phone pictures go this turned out really well. It's a picture of Madelyn while we were playing board games with some friends. It could also work well in a Coke commericial.... I'm giving out FREE advertising advise on this blog! If you want the picture it will cost you.

This is a picture I sent Madelyn showing our old driveway (the black part) and our nice power washed driveway. Have you power washed your driveway lately? This demonstration/picture would work really well in a power washing infomercial.... I can see Billy Mays demonstrating it.

While doing furniture shopping we came across this gem. It's a turtle ottoman.... the shell is squishy and covered in leather. This is easily the most ridiculous piece of furniture I have ever come across. I'm pretty sure it had a "Sold" sign on it, and I'm also pretty sure it was nearly $400.00 dollars. When you see something like this in a furniture store it saves you a lot of time.... you can just turn around and walk out, you don't need to look any further to realize you won't find anything you'll like.

Before we moved into our new house we decided to get a little more familiar with the neighborhood so we packed up the dog, drove to our future home, and walked the streets. I took a picture of Madelyn next to the "Contract Pending" sign.... I thought for sure we would get one in front of the "SOLD" sign.... but the day we signed the papers they took the sign away. I guess in this housing market they need all the signs they can get.... they can't spare them for picture taking.

Kentucky Derby..... and Madelyn looks the part! I think all of Big Brown's success is due to the fact that he was the first horse we've ever placed a bet on and Madelyn's big floppy hat.

My little Nikon ran out of battery at the Wilco concert... so I had to resort to taking pictures with the cell phone. I have no idea why I needed to take a picture so badly. Were they playing a song I like? Was something happening on stage? I should have written this down!

We donated some stuff at Goodwill this weekend (we still call it the "D.I.".... we can't break our habit) and decided we might as well go inside.... maybe we would come across some sort of treasure. Well, we did! This awesome mug was perfect for our friend Jessica, we took a picture and sent it to her.... we would have bought it, but it was .59 cents! We can't afford that! We're saving up for a turtle ottoman.... you can buy yours here.

Sailing.... Takes me away to where I've always heard it could be.

Today Madelyn and I went sailing for the first time on my uncle Michael's sailboat "Audacity". I've been looking forward to getting out on the boat ever since he bought it.... so of course I woke up excited this morning. The first thing I did was wake Madelyn up with the smooth sounds of Christopher Cross and his song "Sailing" from 1980 (click here to listen). The nice Saturday afternoon sail wasn't exactly to the same tempo as Christopher Cross.... it was more like the Metallica version. The wind was howling, the water was choppy, we got drenched, and had to move quickly from each side of the boat to balance the weight.... but we had a GREAT time. We were moving like pros by the end, it was such a beautiful evening and the water was the perfect temperature. It even got smooth enough for a while so that we could snap some pictures.

Big News!

Cody and I made a big big purchase this month...

A new house!

It is a one-story three bedroom/two bathroom house located on the north side of Austin, under a mile from our old apartment. We were thrilled to find a house in this location that we have come to love over the past 18 months of living here.

We absolutely love it and we hope you do, too. Although, it is a lot of work. We have begun calling it our new "work in progress" instead of house, and from what I hear from other homeowners, it will stay that way until we sell it! We are already planning all of our future projects. Check out what we've done so far:

Before:

After:

We power washed the entire outside of the house (including the driveway) to prep for paint. We painted the outside, added some trim around the windows and cut back some of the trees. We also lined the front "landscaping" (that will be our next big project after our bodies and bank accounts have recovered from being really over-used lately) with some awesome rocks we found in the back yard. We also had a lot of help. We think it looks a lot better.

Before:



After:

Before we moved in, we also painted almost every wall on the inside. Here is the living room. The house was listed with a formal dining room, but we turned it into a study. It is much more useful for us this way. Keep in mind that all before pictures feature the previous owner's stuff...

Before:


After:



Before:



After:



Another angle of the study (after):


Master Bedroom Before:


Master Bedroom After:



Master Bedroom/Vanity Before:



Master Bedroom/Vanity After:



Guest Bed Before:



Guest Bed After:



Guest Bath (we didn't change anything):



Kitchen (we didn't change anything...)



Another angle of the kitchen including our dining area:



Back of the House After (we didn't take pictures before):

We have not yet posted pictures of one room - my new project room! Unfortunately, it is where we have been storing some boxes while we find a place for everything. We will post the dramatic before and after pictures as soon as it is done, so stay tuned!

We still have A LOT of work to do, but we have completely moved out of our apartment (yay!) and have only a few boxes left to unpack. We feel like we have done so much and I just wanted to thank all of our wonderful friends and family for helping with the move. We couldn't have done it without you (some of you even made a special trip just to help us - thank you!!!).

Now that we have a guest bed/bath we are hoping to lure some guests!

*click on any picture to go to our online album of our house for more pics!