Chili and Sweaters

Casey and I had a really fun weekend. We started Saturday off bright and early with a trip to Bass Pro Shop. We have 2 camping trips planned for November so we were on the hunt for a sleeping bag. Our search didn’t take long and we found the perfect one! Right outside Bass Pro in the parking lot was a giant chili cook off to raise money for the fire department. We decided to let that be our lunch and we tasted a ton of chili and still didn’t try all of them. The craziest chili we had was the one that used rattlesnake meat. As the guy served it to me, he said “oh wait, you didn’t get any snake in that sample.” I let him know that it was ok. I’d hate for him to have to go digging for snake meat in his chili pot just for me. Casey and I were unanimous in choosing who would get our votes for People’s Choice, Hot Grannies Chili!

Saturday night, we had a reception to go for our friends Lori and Dana’s recent nuptials. As we were getting ready to go, Casey asked me to go get a shirt out of his truck for him to wear. When I got to the truck there was an Old Navy bag with a sweater in it. Now, for you who don’t know Casey, he gets hot at about 70 degrees and has always refused to wear a sweater, even though I always tell him how cute they would look on him and how much I would love to see him in one. So, his gift to me that he had bought a sweater and was going to wear it just for me. He looked so cute in it too! Check him out in the photos below!

Road Trip

Last weekend Casey and I took a road trip with Casey’s dad and Denise down to Austin. It was so much fun! Here are the highlights…
* Eating lunch at The Salt Lick in Driftwood, Texas for lunch
* Buying Texas Longhorn shirts and sweatshirts for the game (and because I didn’t pack enough warm clothes)
* Walking through Austin and seeing all of the tailgaters and fans
* Getting TCBY before the game
* Learning all of the fight songs and chants while putting my “hook ‘em horns” up
* Watching UT beat Colorado!
* Surprise detour to San Antonio for lunch on Sunday
* Getting to meet up with Donnie for lunch at La Margarita in the Mercado
* Eating a caramel filled churro from Mi Tierra
* Seeing The Alamo

Here are some pictures from the weekend…

Bevo, on his way to the game

Bringing out the Texas flag
Morgan and Denise Jackie and Denise



I think you know these two...

Remembering The Alamo

Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious!

I love the Theater, especially MUSICAL Theater. Last night, Casey and I went on a date night for the last show of my season ticket season to see Mary Poppins. We started off the night with Casey taking me to dinner in lower Greenville to Gloria’s. Neither of us had tried it before and it was delicious. The weather was great so we even got to eat outside! That reminded me of my California days. The exciting moment of the dining experience was getting Casey’s truck back from the valet (who was training by the way, which is something I don’t think you ever want to hear). Casey’s truck is a standard and this girl didn’t put the emergency break on when she was stopped so we stood there and watched as the girl tried to get out of the truck while the truck began rolling backwards. Luckily, the truck is ok and still in tact.

Next we were on to the State Fair of Texas to get some dessert, look at the car show, and then finally go see Mary Poppins. While we were waiting for the show to start, I was singing the songs to Casey and told him that I probably watched this movie about 100 times when I was little. Before the show started we scouted out seats. Of course, our typically lower balcony seats that we steal were available but the temptation to get even better seats was too strong. So, risking everything, we made our way downstairs and landed some orchestra seats about 14 rows back. AMAZING! I have never sat in my nosebleed seats and I think that is quiet the accomplishment. Mary Poppins was hands down the BEST musical in the series. The sets were amazing and so intricate. The actors were so professional and had great voices. I was smiling and singing along to the songs the whole time. There were easily 2 highlights of the play. During “Step in Time” with the chimney sweeps, Bert literally walks around the entire opening of the stage, horizontally up the and down the sides and upside down at the top. Oh, did I mention he was tap dancing upside down across the top? Then, at the end, just like in the commercials, Mary Poppins flies over the audience and up to the balcony. It was such a cool moment that I even got that one glistening tear that happens when musical theater moves me. I really hope to get to go to the 2010 season! Thanks for my tickets Mom and Dad!!!

Congratulations Mr. and Mrs. Muth!

Saturday night my friends Jill and Nick were in town to celebrate their recent nuptials. It was so good to see them again as I hadn’t seen either one since they moved to Nashville about a year and a half ago. The boys spent most of the time watching the Notre Dame football game while the girls talked. When the game was finally over, I was able to get a few pics to prove they were in attendance.

The girls: Candace, Me, and Jill

Candace & Ryan

Jill & Nick

You did WHAT on Saturday morning?

Saturdays are known for being the day of the week where people finally get to sleep in after getting up early all week. Casey must have forgotten this well known fact this weekend. He made me get up at 7am to…eat breakfast? No. Watch the sunrise? No. Mow a lawn? YES! He made me mow my very first lawn this weekend. I can’t say that mowing a lawn was on the top of my list of things to do in life but I guess I can check it off. The high point of the morning was when he wanted me to start the mower myself and refused to help me. While I admire his confidence in me, after my arm muscles felt weak due to the fact that I tried to start the thing 20 times, I was ready to give up. The fact that Casey was laughing and loving every minute of watching me fight with the mower didn’t help either. I finally stepped away form the mower and said “If you want me to mow the yard today, you better start this thing because I’m ready to go inside and lay on the couch while you do this!” Needless to say I got him to start the mower. I mowed and he edged/weed-eated for probably about 45 minutes. I told him the next time I will be mowing a lawn will be while on a riding lawn mower.

Photo Experiments

My friend Jennifer passed on a website that can help you edit photos for free so I had some fun last night playing around with some of my Europe photos. I wasn't sure what everything was so I literally just clicked on everything until I thought it looked kind of cool.

Eiffel Tower

Colesium

Amsterdam Canal

Mt. Pilatus, Switzerland

Greet & Eat

This Sunday my small group had a little thing called “Greet & Eat” at Macee’s house. Every third Saturday of the month is our turn to greet at church but this time we made an event out of it and grilled out at Macee’s house. There was great food and great fellowship. The highlight of the night was when Lori and Dana asked if anyone wanted to challenge them in Redneck Horseshoes because they were the reigning champions and Casey and gladly accepted. Now in order for you to grasp the awesome-ness that was this game, you first need to understand the game. Picture this: 2 sets of PVC pipes that have 3 rungs each. The top rung is 3 points, middle rung is 2 points, and the bottom is 1 point. Yu have these little numchuck looking things that are 2 golf balls with a rope between them. The goal is to collect up to 21 points as a team. You can also cancel your opponents points out if your golf ball numchuck-thing lands on the same rung as theirs did. Ok, so back the challenge. Lori and Dana were able to keep a lead but Casey and I were never far behind and tied them several times on our way to 21. Eventually, we were both tied at 20 points. At this point, we probably went back and forth at least 5 times where we either cancelled each other out on the 1 point rung or both missed completely. Casey had several clutch moments where he cancelled Dana’s point out to keep us in the game. Finally, it was Lori and my turn again. Lori missed all of hers and one of mine landed on the 2nd rung! 2 points for us which put us at 22 points. Now an important point of this game is if you bust (go over 21), you go back down to 11 points. I had one numchuck left to toss. If I was able to knock off my numchuck from the second rung we would still be in the game. Here I go…I make my toss…the numchuck falls off…then one lands on the first rung!!! I went from “I lost the game for us” to “I tied the game for us” to “I won the game for us!” Casey and I were on a high from the win for the rest of the night. I think that game will go down in Redneck Horseshoe history.