Molly's big day!

So if you are my friend on facebook, I'm sure you already know that we had a special day today with Molly. When we were in Spain and even San Fran, we envied how the locals were able to incorporate their dogs into their everyday lives much more so than we are allowed here. You know, Molly is not just a dog to us...she IS our daughter. I know not everyone sees it this way, but that's their problem. :) Anyways, we wanted to give her a fun day out and about while we were in Austin today. We started with lunch at Whole Foods, where we sat on the patio. May I please add here that it was a GORGEOUS 84 degrees! Seems impossible that Christmas is only a few days away, but hey...I'll take warm weather over cold ANY day! After we left lunch we went to a great Austin shop, Whole Earth. (Whole Foods to Whole Earth...we were very "wholey" today, weren't we? ha!) I had to return a pair of TOMS that my grandmother got me that were a little too small. As soon as we got there, I remembered seeing this Boston Terrier stuffed animal there last year, and sure enough, they STILL had one! :) Of course I had to get it. Zac wanders what I'm going to do with a stuffed animal larger than our actual dog, and was shocked at how much it cost. I promised him our 'one day' kids would LOVE it, and I'd never regret buying that thing. I believe that too! ;) After that we headed to Fetch, which is a dog boutique in Westlake. We have bought Molly's last two collars there, and wanted to get her new one there too. They are unique and fancy, but hey-she wears it EVERY single day for years and years, so why not splurge!? She had her last collar for three years, and I was so pleased with it. I think she was too. Her new collar had to be special ordered, and it will be delivered in a month. I can't wait! It is also pink, and has swarovski crystals, but WAY more than her current collar! :) Yay!!! I promise I'll post pics when it comes in. After that, we went to Michaels and she sat in the red basket like a little angel. People would walk by and just rush to pet her. I didn't get one snobby "why do you have your dog in here?" look! She stole their hearts before they could judge us, so there! haha! Anyways, I think she had a lot of fun. She took a big happy nap when we got home, which is coincidentally also the way her dad and I like to unwind after a busy day of errands! :)

Love is all around...

I have never heard this Dave Matthews Christmas song until today, but it is AMAZING and so meaningful. His voice is so soothing and I could listen to it all day. I like the way he tells the Christmas story too. Beautiful song!! Click HERE to listen.

"Father up above, why in all this hatred, do you fill me up with LOVE?"

Tangled

We took our kids to lunch and to see a movie today for our "Class Christmas Party" and although it was a really rough day, there were some great moments! I tried to call the movie theater on the way this morning, to let them know 25 people were coming, so they could prepare for us. The only number listed for the cinema is the info line with the long recording of movie times, and NO way to speak to a human. I tried a few times, and pushed random buttons but no success. When I finally hung up, one of my students approached me and said (in a sweet and innocent speech-impeded voice) "Miss, they probably aren't answering because of the surround sound! It is WAY too loud in that place to hear a little phone ring!" haha! My students are so clever and make me smile so much.
If you were thinking of seeing Tangled, DO IT!!! It was amazing, and I'm not even a big "animated film" fan. I saw Megamind a month ago, and was quite underwhelmed, but Tangled was the real deal! I even told a mom that I haven't seen a Disney movie this quality since I was a child. It's up there with Aladin and Little Mermaid and Lion King, if you ask me. Too many "kids" movies these days feel like they need to throw in a little potty humor (ahem, Shrek), but this is just good clean fun, and has a great story too! No damsel-in-distress here...Rapunzel was a frying pan swinging woman! We studied the story before we went, and the kids even knew it was written by the Grimm brothers, and took place in Germany. They never cease to amaze me!