Sundays at home.

I love Sundays. I love that it was yucky outside today and that meant lounging on the couch with my favorite new blanket, my dogs, and my hubby. Perfect day. And since it’s cold outside that meant we could have my other favorite yucky cold weather thing… a fire in the fireplace.

I love my life.

New Lights!

Other house project complete! Well 2 projects actually. Woo-hoo!

First, for what ever reason the previous owners installed a motion light to be used as the front porch light. I hated that damn motion sensor. It never worked properly. Sometimes it would come on sometimes it wouldn’t and you’d be left standing there in the dark trying to fiddle with keys. Annoying. So here is the light. Did I mention how ugly it was? Not very welcoming. And not the first impression I wanted to make to my guests. Griff’s Aunt Terri and Uncle Warren gave us a Lowe’s gift card for Christmas so we put it to good use today and bought a a new front porch light! Griff installed it and and it looks fantastic! Who knew I could get so excited over a front porch light? Ugh… do you know me? I live for this stuff!

So here’s Griff installing the light. We are so lucky Griff can do this. It saves us a TON of money since we don’t have to hire an electrician.

And here she is hanging in all her glory! Isn’t she beautiful!

Job complete and here’s a happy Griff!

The second project we Griff completed today was changing out the horrible brass light fixture in the hallway. Ugh, I loath brass. We have about a million brass doorknobs that will one day meet their demise, but that’s another project. Here is the old light fixture. Seriously, who in the world thinks this looks good? Ugh.

And here is the new light fixture. Soooooo much better!

Look Mom! I installed a light all by myself!

And while we didn’t go to Bed Bath and Beyond, we still had a nice little Saturday.

Houston, we have a problem. There is a tiger in our front yard.

You can imagine my surprise when I came home from work last Friday to see this. A big GIANT blow up Mike the Tiger in my front yard. It was the night of the Cotton Bowl and LSU was playing ATM. Toni, Griff’s Mom, gave this to him a couple of years ago, and I have to say, this GIANT tiger is stinkin’ hysterical!

I sent this picture to a couple of friends and Hannah replied wanting to see me hugging the tiger. Ooooh kay, why tha hell not.

Here is a picture when it was dark and we were leaving to go watch the game at our friends house. Who by the way, graduated from ATM, {which made for an interesting night}. Griff put Christmas lights around Mike to make him more festive.

So glad LSU won. Not that I had my doubts.

The End of a Decade!

Holy Adulthood Batman! I can’t believe 2010 is over. The first decade of this century is over! And even scarier… I’m an adult going into the next decade. YIKES! I moved to Austin in 2001, with no job, no place to live, and not a sole to call on a Saturday night. I had no idea what my life would be like when the decade ended. I had no idea I would be married to the love my life, owning a home and very close to starting a family to call my own. Austin has proven to be a great place to live and the place I met my husband and best friends. I love this stage of my life but I am SO excited to start the next chapter with my husband and to see where this rollercoaster of a ride takes us. Here is a look back at all the wonderful things that happened to us this past year! Enjoy.

In February I celebrated my 31st birthday with our annual costume party. This year the theme was Mustache and Cleavage, and we did not disappoint.

In April we moved out of a rent house when we bought a house of our very own.

Also in April, we adopted our sweet Eva girl from my Dad’s cousin Martha. She is such a wonderful addition to our family and we could not imagine our lives without her.

Again in April, {man this was a busy month}, Griff was awarded his Blue Belt in Jiu Jitsu. And in October he was awarded his Brown Belt in Judo. Oh and as a bonus, he also was awarded his first black eye, {in a long time}, from Martial Arts.

In July we celebrated Griff’s 30th birthday with a surprise sushi dinner shared with all our friends.

In August we celebrate our 1 year anniversary with a trip to San Antonio.

In October we dressed up for one of our favorite holidays… Halloween. This year we went as Paul Bunyan and Babe the Blue Ox.

In November we had our first major home renovation project. New floors. with 2 dogs, that icky carpet had to go and in its place, tile that looks like wood! We LOVE it! We had a few rooms done, but here is a shot of our living room before and after.

What a year! I am literally chopping at the bit to see what this next year has in store for us. Whatever it is I know it will be great. And the fact that I will be sharing this next decade with the love of my life, well, that’s the best part of it all.

New Years Eve 2010

Wow! I can’t believe 2010 is over! It’s the end of a decade. '

“It’s the end of an era, you might say.” – Monica, Friends.

We have been so blessed this past year, but more about that in another post.

Griff and I were invited to attend a party that our friend Samantha was throwing at a bar that she rented out for the night. The place was called The Long Branch Inn and it was in downtown Austin on the east side. We had never heard of this place but we down to go because her parties are legendary see. Amy and Hannah came too and Hannah’s new boy Scott as well. It goes without saying that when Amy, Hannah and I get together we have have fun no matter what we are doing. Griff didn’t know what he was getting into when he married us me.

Here are some pictures from the wild night! They had a photographer there so of course we took some pics. That’s Crazy Pants Samantha, {the chick that threw the party}, in the middle.

Dance, dance, dance machine!

ARE YOU READY FOR THE NEXT PICTURE? IT CRACKS ME UP. BE SURE TO A GOOOOOD LOOOOONG LOOK AT EACH PERSON IN THIS PICTURE. You’ll soon be saying WTF?

Happily Griff and I both felt fine the next morning. {Surprising after seeing that last picture I know.} Perhaps the late night pizza at Hannah’s soaked up most of the alcohol. Thanks for thinking of our livers Han!