Black Beauty

It's crazy how much I can love a dog. Just crazy. Some of you will understand, some won't, and that's okay. We met my parents in Waco today (halfway between our city and theirs) for dinner, and to give them Molly. We will be away from her for 10 days. Just typing that hurts my feelings. Gulp...it will be a very long time to be away from her. Longer than we ever have been, but I know it will be worth it too. (keep reminding yourself that, Jules!) It was so hard watching them drive away with her tonight, and even harder because she was sorta hanging out of the window, looking at us like she was so confused and felt betrayed. If you think dogs don't have human emotions and expressions, you haven't met Molly. I choked up, Zac took my hand, and we walked silently to the car, with that yucky feeling that you're missing something. I should be in bed now, but I know it will be so weird having to sleep without her. She normally cuddles with me all night, and stays right by my side. I love the way she breathes, snores, smells, feels...I'll miss that. But I know my senses will be entertained by new smells and sounds and tastes and sights. Not to sound melodramatic (yeah right...like this whole post hasn't been a bit dramatic!?), but I know we will come back changed. Changed in a good way. :) And I know we'll come back with a little gift for Molly, to bribe our way back into her good graces!
PS-Just added 2 more posts to my journal on my travel website. Check it out!

kind of a deep post

This morning we headed to McKinney (an hour away) to go to church with my cousins, and have lunch with them. I had been to their church a few times, but Zac never had. We have had a hard time finding a church that we like because we both prefer a traditional service (choir, organ, hymnals) as compared to a praise style, but we want an open-minded congregation and pastor. We were both raised Methodist, but all the Methodist churches we've tried close to home are either a praise style service or the congregation is filled with all old people and we didn't quite fit in. Anyways, I've loved Ellen and Amy's church the times I've gone, so I wanted Zac to go. It was a great service today. I enjoyed what he preached about while I was there, but the more it marinates within me, the more I like it. He was talking about Jesus' 40 days in the wilderness and being constantly tempted by Satan. (This was also a pep talk for me about resisting temptation, since I gave up Dr. Pepper for Lent and have been miserable and having headaches and wanting to give in, but I haven't.) Anyways, at one point in the scripture the devil quotes the bible. The preacher said "there are many 'bible quoting devils' today, who take scripture and twist it how they want to, and pray on the most vulnerable groups." I think that is so true and it was so cool to hear a minister say so. Living in an extremely conservative town, it is hard to hear people say "I'm a republican because I'm a Christian." What are you trying to say about me...that I'm not a good Christian because I don't consider myself a Republican? It's frustrating to me. You can be a Christian and still have different political opinions. The main thing that bothers me I think, is that people use being a Christian as an excuse for being close-minded. I think the whole point of Christianity is to LOVE your neighbor, even if the neighbor is not exactly like you, and even if they make different choices, and even if they choose a different lifestyle or religion. It is not our job to judge and it's not our job to try to use the bible to condemn a certain group, just because we don't agree with them. This is getting kind of heavy, and I meant to just talk about how much I loved their church. We really wish it was not an hour away, or we would join for sure! We are still going to try to visit as often as possible though. Anyhow, after lunch we all went to eat at Jason's Deli...yum! It was so good to see my family and chat about work and life and the kids and sports and everything else we always blab about. :) When we got home from McKinney we took a long nap and then took Molly to a local park since it was such a gorgeous day. We'd never been to this one, and ended up walking around for abut an hour and a half. Molser loved it.

Rollercoaster Weekend

The good part of this weekend was really good, and the bad part of this weekend was really bad. A roller coaster of emotions, if you will. Let's start with the good. Saturday we left around noon to head up to McKinney for Claire's third birthday party. I always love spending time with my cousins and their families, but this was an especially great day. We started out at the Allen Natatorium (for an indoor pool party), then went to Ellen and Breagan's house for cake and presents. Claire was so excited to have everyone there and told "Zaccy" and me several times "thanks for coming to my party!" Very cute. After everyone started leaving their house, we stuck around (as well as Amy and Gian), to visit and laugh. We decided to have dinner together before we headed back to Midlo, so we went to Scotty P's for some yummy burgers. We ended up staying there for almost two hours, just visiting (and the guys watching the Cowboys game). It was finally time to go and we hugged a million times...it was so nice to spend the day together. Here are a few precious pics (although Ellen's were MUCH better than mine)...
Above, my lovely cousins. Below, please notice Nati's sweatshirt!! :)

What a little poser! Haha, too cute! ;)
Ellen made Claire's cake, and it tasted as good as it looked...AMAZING!The happy birthday girl and her proud Mama at the restaurant.
Ready for the bad part? We got home from McKinney (about 10pm) and Molly met us at the door...looking nothing like Molly. She was having some type of allergic reaction, and who knows how long she'd been suffering. This is what she looked like:
Just looking at these pics again makes me hurt.

Her appearance alone made me kind of panic and cry, but the guilt of leaving her all day was unbearable. We never found what it could have been (it looked like she just slept the whole time we were gone, there was no food or trash or anything different than when we left). We gave her a benadryl and a bath (in case it was topical) and tried to calm down a bit. I was very worried that it would start affecting her breathing, so I planned on waking up every 30 minutes to check on her. I didn't have to worry about waking up to check on her though, because all three of us didn't sleep all night. Mols was very restless and uncomfortable and we were worried, so we watched her every move. We finally settled in around 5am, and then she woke up vomiting about 7. It had been eight hours, so we gave her another benadryl and went back to sleep. She woke up throwing up again around 10 so we all got up for good. We thought things were getting better, but around 1 the swelling and itching came back. Hives everywhere. This time it bothered me even more because she'd had two rounds of benadryl, so why in the world was this still happening? It also has been driving me mad that we don't know what caused it. Anyways, she wasn't allowed to have another benadryl until 3:30, and it obviously wasn't working much anyways, so we took her to the doctor. Of course, being a Sunday we had to take her to an Animal Hospital, which automatically means super expensive, but it's our baby, the money wasn't even a thought. The vet gave her an IV with steroids and we sat and waited. He would normally give her a benadryl shot (fast acting) but since she'd had two doses in the past 14 hours, he didn't want to overdose her. We watched and the bumps slowly started going down a bit. It was pretty pathetic...bless her heart. This is what she looked like when she was "better" and we took her home.

It was a long and horrible night and day. I am doing better now that I think she is started to get better, but for awhile, I thought my heart was going to break in half. I HATE seeing her in pain, and she's a dog...I pray my kid never looks so pathetic, because I don't know how I will handle it. That probably sounds dramatic, but I really felt weak today, the sadness was taking over me. :( I love that girl so much. I know people who don't have a pet like that probably don't understand, but she is a part of our family, and when she is miserable, Zac and I are miserable too. Haha, we were probably more upset today than she was.
Thank goodness we had such a wonderful day Saturday to make up for our rocky night and Sunday. Okay, enjoy this cute video. Ellen, Braegan, Amy, and Gian love The Office, so they borrowed this little practice from the show, and it has now become a family tradition for them. I love it! :)

Mi Perro, Mis Amigas, y Mi Familia

I have been bad about blogging, so here is a quick catch up of our social life for the past two weeks... Karen and Robbie had us over to their house to watch the first Spurs/Mavs playoff game. Karen invited Molly, since her Shih Tzu Greta was going to be there, as well as a Morky (Maltese-Yorkie mixed breed) Punky. Molly was a little bit of a bully, but not in a mean way...she just wanted those poor little girls to play with her so badly and they were a little unsure of her. They were all really cute together though!



Last week we met Stacy at Buffalo Wild Wings to watch another of the Spurs/Mavs games. We were stared at, since we were the ONLY people in the joint with Spurs stuff on, but whatever. It was fun and Stacy and I got to have lots of girl talk before Zac got off work and showed up. :)

Saturday morning I went to McKinney to watch Nati's soccer game and help Amy celebrate her birthday. Nati was such a cute little soccer stud. Breagan is the coach and he is so good with all the kids. That is a lucky bunch of kids and parents...they have a great coach!

I made cupcakes for Amy for her birthday, and even though I was two weeks late seeing her, I still sang and made her blow out a candle! :)

Claire and Batman...I mean Nati, looking cute as ever...

Saturday on my way home from McKinney my dad called and casually said "what are y'all doing tonight?" I told him we didn't have plans and he said "how 'bout some company?" We were so excited for the impromptu visit from my parents!! I love that they just got a wild hair and decided to come! It was quite a treat. They arrived in time for dinner so we went out to eat and then came home and watched old home videos. I know that might sound boring and cheesy to some people, but it was Rusty's 6th birthday, and all the videos we watched were puppy videos of Molly and Rusty...they were SOO cute!! :) Sunday morning we decided to take the dogs on a fieldtrip to a nearby lake. It was a little cool when we got in the car at home, but somehow a fifteen minute drive and the new location later we opened the car doors to a crazy-windy really eerie weather phenomenon. I tried to capture how windy it was...I can't explain it. Just trust me!

We had to fight just to stand. The water on a small lake had waves and whitecaps and everything from the wind!

Molly would not get in the water (so that should tell you how crazy the weather was!) but her paws got a tiny bit wet. I tried to make her ride in the back of the car on the way home, but just look at that face! It lasted maybe 2 minutes and then I put her in the backseat with us. :)

Last night we had dinner with Cody and Rheanna at a new Tex-Mex place they just opened near us. All you Abilene people will appreciate what it was...TaMolly's! Remember that restaurant near the mall? We just got one about ten minutes away from us. It was pretty tasty, but the company was even better! Look how happy Mr. Colt was after dinner! :)

Just in case I never mentioned it, we have amazing friends and family. I feel like a very blessed little girl!

SB: Saturday/Sunday

Saturday morning we woke up and ate a free breakfast at our hotel. I love those waffle machines where you get to pour the batter yourself, and wait for two minutes...they taste so good and remind me of my fun college days. :) We packed up quickly and went straight to the Experience Music Project in Seattle. It is pretty amazing...I just wish we had more time to explore it! Our plane left at 2 and we had to make it to the airport and turn in our rental car and all that, so the EMP was pretty much the only thing we had time for, and we were rushed through that. I can't explain how awesome the museum is, except to say that it's interactive, and if you like music at all, or history, since music usually goes along with what is happening in the world, you would love this museum! The building itself is really cool from the outside. Here is an aerial view, taken from the SpaceNeedle, a few days before.


And this was just a little collage I found online of different parts of the exterior of the building. It's really really cool. I took lots of pictures of it myself, but this was nice, because it is all in one.

Here is Zac as we are walking in...

I guess I felt like I was supposed to pose like a rock star? haha, I'm a dork, y'all already know that.

There is a HUGE (at least two stories!) cyclone of instruments, mostly guitars. It was cool!

It is interactive, and you get to play with all sorts of instruments and sound equipment. We got to go in this soundproof room and play with a sound board. You won't guess what the song was to experiment with...Sweet Dreams!! I love that song! :) Here is a short video of us playing...

On the way out of town, we had a tiny bit of time so we drove by Safeco and Qwest, so Zac could get a better view of them.

I thought this was a cool piece of art, and very appropriate for the city...a windblown umbrella.

Sniff, Sniff! Goodbye Seattle, Goodbye Northwest. Goodbye ocean and tall trees and rain.

Hello Texas, here we come...

Funny story about our clothes...I got dressed at the hotel while Zac was in the shower, and then he got dressed when I was gone to get breakfast. What do you know...we both put on a black shirt with a gray v-neck sweater over it. Haha, um I guess that's what happens when we spend 24/7 together. :)
We got to watch the sun set on the plane, and it was indescribable. If you think that it's pretty to see a sun's reflection on water, you should see the way it looks on the clouds! Wow!

Rheanna and Cody and Colt picked us up from the airport to bring us home. We were all hungry and decided to stop at Taco Bell for a 10:00 dinner. :) I have not eaten inside a fast food chain like Taco Bell in a long time, but it was so fun to be there with friends, late at night...felt kinda like high school, haha!
Sunday morning we woke up with one thing on our mind...MOLLY! We drove to Waco and met my parents and Zac's mom for lunch at Texas Roadhouse. It was neat to tell them all about the trip while it was fresh on our minds, but I have to say the best part was being reunited with our baby girl, who we had not seen since Monday morning! Here's a pic of the family reunion...


And what better way to celebrate being back in Texas. and with the Molser babe, than by taking pics in the bluebonnets! :)

Best SUNday ever!

This day was so awesome. I just have to start at the beginning.
-Woke up late, snuggled right in between Zac and Molly.
-Had lunch with Zac and Ram at one of my favorite restaurants, Jason's Deli! Hello...have you tried their broccoli/cheese soup? YUM!
-Breck stopped by for a few hours. She was up in the area this weekend visiting other friends, so she came by on her way home. We ended up talking for like two hours, and it was SO awesome to catch up and just sit and visit.
-I found out that Tatem, Scott, and Eliza are coming to see us next weekend! We are so super excited! We are going to go to either the Dallas Zoo, or the Dallas Aquarium. Any opinions on which is better for a 16 month old and four adults? I know some of y'all have been to both!
-Watched "School of Rock" which makes me happy EVERY time I watch it! :) "You're not hardcore, unless you live hardcore!"
-We went on a Molly Outing! She has been having to sit at home so much, now that I am interning, and Track has started up, so we wanted to do something fun for her. We considered going back to the "clay park" (that's just my own personal nickname for it!), but decided to venture out and try something new. Zac knew about a lake in Waxahachie, about fifteen minutes from us, so we headed that way, with fingers crossed. We got there, and it was perfect! :) Molly got to run, and swim, and sniff, and mark trees...all her dreams came true! She hasn't been swimming since last summer, so we were not sure if she would get right in, but she didn't hesitate much. We thought the boat ramp would be a good place for her to be able to "ease" her way in, but she accidentally stepped off the side of the ramp and plunged into the deepness. Her face was so scared for a second, but then her Aqua Dog skills kicked in, and she just swam right back to us.

She also loved to fetch sticks...


-After the lake, we were on our way home and saw a snow cone stand! If you know me, you know I LOVE snow cones!! I got half grape, half peach, and Zac got his fave...pickle juice. (nope, I am not kidding...that really is his favorite. He likes it even better with Lemon/Lime salt on it, as if it's not salty enough!)
-Look how beautiful the sky was tonight...

-When we got home, we gave Molly a bath, and then she immediately passed out on the couch, not to wake up until the morning. She will be dreaming about swimming, sticks, and car rides tonight! :)
If you want to see ALL the pics, go to my picasa page. I have posted all the pics from the entire AWESOME AND AMAZING weekend.

Goodbye Elvis!

Molly's biological father Elvis (who belongs to Zac's parents) passed away today. I was very sad when Zac broke the news to me, and I even teared up a bit. He was probably only about 9 (the Oldham's bought him from a family who had already owned him a few years, so I'm not sure about the eact age), which is young for a dog to die. Boston Terriers are said to be able to live to 15. Poor Elvis, and poor Mom and Dad. At least he is in Doggie Heaven now, with Susie, Molly's mother. Elvis dying makes me question if we are doing everything right for Molly, so she can live the longest, healthiest, happiest life possible. I know we need to quit feeding her human food (especially the really bad stuff, like fries and cheetos) and start walking her daily. She deserves the best, and sometimes when we are busy, we put her needs on the back burner, which is not fair. I mean, don't get me wrong, she always has food and water and gets to go potty frequently...we take her to the vet on a regular basis and everything, but we need to give her more one-on-one attention.

On a lighter note, I am looking forward to the new movie "Funny People" by Judd Apatow, the creater of The Fourty Year Old Virgin and Knocked Up. (If you watch the trailor, get past the first 30 seconds or so...it gets better and deeper.)

Our Wonderful Weekend

Friday night I had to go to a high school basketball game, since the girls were cheering. We only have one more game that we are cheering at! Then banquet, then my year as a cheer coach is officially over. Crazy, but good. After the games, Zac and Ramsi and Bez and I went to see Taken. )I thought since it was a 10:20 show, it would not be that crowded, but it was PACKED! I just happened to sit by a guy who talked, laughed, commented the entire movie. Luckily I was so focused on the movie it didn't bother me that much. Usually it would, but I guess he was a little bit entertaining too.) Taken was so so amazing! I loved it. It really reminded me of Bourne Identity alot, which was one of my former favorites. European setting, check! Car chases, check! Walking across a skinny ledge on the outside of a building, check! Chasing and running away, check! It was awesome...you need to see it, if you have not already! Liam Neeson rocked my world!
Saturday morning I woke up and hung around the house anxious to see a special person. Sarah, who was a freshmen cheerleader at Stockdale when I coached there six years ago, came to see me. She is now married and has a beautiful 15 month old boy Brayden. It was so great to see her and play with Brady. She was invited to our wedding, but couldn't come, and then we were invited to hers and couldn't go. We have been missing each other for five years, so it was cool to be reunited, and even cooler that we are "peers" now, and she is not 14 anymore. :) We talked about Stockdale, marriage, and all sorts of fun stuff. Sarah, thanks so much for coming to see me! I had a wonderful time, and can't wait to see you again!
After Sarah and Brady left, and Zac woke up from a nap we decided to take Molly on a nature hike. We went to this area we had seen before that we thought would be cool. It was pretty lame, but it was fun nonetheless, and we did get some nice susnshine and exercise. Here is a (dorky) video I took on our walk. I know I'm a bit dramatic, but we just kept walking and walking and the ditch kept getting deeper and deeper. WARNING...if you have not seen The Princess Bride, we can't be friends until you do. If you haven't seen that movie, my video won't make sense.

When we got home after our walk, we had to take our shoes off and leave them on the porch because they clay had dried on the drive home and it was just a mess. Obviously it was caked into Molly's paws and under her nails and had hardened, so we had to give her a bath. She is so cute after a bath. When Zac took this pic, he goes (in an excited voice...which is rare, let's admit it) "It's a Girl!" haha, he is so funny.

We were just hanging around the house wandering what we were going to do that night when Zac got a text from one of the coaches, inviting us to go out with them. We went to a place in Las Colinas called Cadillac Ranch. It was great. The people who designed that place did a very good job. It is neat! But of course the best part was hanging out with friends! Karen and Amber and I drove together to alot of the out of town football games, but haven't gotten to hang out much since football ended. (We saw each other at the Christmas party, and football banquet, but that doesn't really count!) We had so much fun. It is refreshing to be around people you enjoy who you have not gotten to see in quite a while. :)


After the bar, we went back to Karen's townhome, which was very near Cadillac Ranch. She has a beautiful place, and wonderful taste! She has the sweetest little dog named Greta. She made us some yummy dip and cookies and we ate a snack and then headed home. Considering we had NO plans in advance for the day, I would say it turned out to be the perfect Saturday! :)
Sunday we went to eat lunch with Ramsi and Bez. We drove into Arlington and had Jason's Deli...yum! Zac and I used to go there like once a week when we lived in Austin. We miss it so much, and the closest one is like 25 minutes away. Ramsi had never been (What? I know!) and she loved it. I think we will be going back soon. That broccoli/cheese soup is the BEST! When we got home, we walked to the park to let Molly run around. It was cloudy and windy, but still nice to be outside. We took gloves and a softball and played catch. We took a frisbee for Molly and a tennis ball and she ran for an hour straight! She was so tired when we got home! Ramsi and I played on the swings and I tried to get across the little rings and couldn't, but she could. I guess I need to practice, or get some upper body strength...one of the two. haha!
Last night I watched the Grammy's and loved them! I am not even sure which was my favorite performance, but probably Swagga Like Us. Dude! How pregnant was MIA? Jeez Louise! I love award shows, I love music, and the Grammy's are one of my favorite nights in television. Love em! It was such an awesome way to end an amazing weekend. I guess this weekend is proof that sometimes the best plans are no plans, because everything we did this weekend was spontaneous and turned out to be so much fun! :)
**As usual, check out my Picasa page to see all the pictures. I took alot more than I posted here.

Banquet and Begging

Saturday night was the annual football banquet. In the town we live it, everything is very over the top, so the high school football banquet (as well as the cheer banquet, which is coming up) is semi-formal and very fancy. My favorite part of the banquet was seeing some of my favorite cheerleaders, who were there as dates to football players, all dressed up and looking pretty.
Here are the senior cheerleaders that were there, which happen to be some of my favorites from last year and this year. The dress on the far right was my favorite dress of the whole banquet...isn't it gorgeous? The back had a cutout square and two black bows connecting one side to the other. (hard to explain, but beautiful!) I told her she deserved the "best dressed" award! Oh, and you can always click on any picture on my blog to see it enlarged. :)Here are some of my freshmen cheerleaders that were at the banquet. They look so grown up!
Zac and I gave blood on Saturday, and neither of us really felt up to going out with some of the other coaches after the banquet. We came home and just pretty much went to bed, but first we took some pics with Molly. She has been a little clingy since we started back to school, and I don't blame her. She went from having us 24/7 to barely seeing us at all. Pobrecita!
Molly has never been afraid of being vocal when she wants something. Once at my parents house she sat at the bottom of a bookshelf for thirty minutes crying and whining, with an occasional bark. I thought she was going insane, and then I finally realized that there was a tennis ball resting on top of some books on the top shelf. How she knew it was there was beyond me, but hey, no one can say she's not persistent. Recently if we are cooking, or online, or watching tv, and not paying attention to her, she will sit at our feet and beg and cry for attention. (that makes us sound like bad parents, but I promise she gets plently of love, affection, and attention...she just wants it non-stop!) I was laying in bed the other evening watching Ellen, and she wanted me to play tug-of-war with her. See for yourself how pathetic she sounds, and how annoyed she gets when I imitate her...


Fellow Pop-Tarts! (my friends who love pop/hip-hop/rap/pop culture):
1. How amazing is THIS new song by Flo Rida? It might be a bit PG-13, but it is so fun and catchy, and it's a remake of that awesome old song "watch out here I come...you spin me right round, baby, right round, like a record baby, right round, round, round."
2. Surely y'all have already heard Kelly Clarkson's new song. Well, the video for it has leaked onto the web. Check it out.