Now she really is unsinkable!

Okay, so I recognize that I'm sounding like an obsessed pet owner but let's face it - I kinda am.

We took Molly over to my parent's house to meet their dogs and play. They went outside and wouldn't you know it - Molly ends up in the minus 50 degree pool. Okay so maybe it wasn't THAT cold but I tell you I sure freaked out. She was so cold and so scared - I thought I was going to cry. But the lighthearted part of the story is that now she really is the Unsinkable Molly White!

Good Golly Miss Molly!

We've decided that Molly is a collie mix. We seriously love her to pieces. We love her enough to spend $$$ at the vet for kennel cough, an ear infection, and an anal gland draining. I didn't realize dogs could be so EXPENSIVE. I also didn't realize that I could be a cheesy dog owner. I've always disliked dogs and now I'm one of those goobers who calls herself Mommy to her dog. She is SUCH a good dog. Sweet, good natured, and (so far) easy to train. They say collies are really smart and trainable. Yay!

The Unsinkable Molly White

Meet the newest member of our family!! We don't know what type of dog she is but we love her.

A Winning Gingerbread house

Just wanted to share our award winning gingerbread house. Our team was Licorice & Dynamite. Our team members were me, Richard, Brad, Kelly & Melissa. Seriously the best team ever. Click on the picture for a larger image.

Here are the other winning entries:

Thanksgiving week happenings

Wow, I'm really not so good at the regular updates on my blog. (Which is really funny because I check my friends blogs all the time and get excited about their updates.) Thanksgiving week was a blast. I worked Mon-Wed and had Thurs-Fri off. The family all split up on Thanksgiving going to in-laws so we had a family extravaganza on Wednesday night (pretty much everything we do falls under the category extravaganza but that could just be because I like that word a lot). Dad got home a little early this week and we all met over at J & J's house. We had lots of yummy treats and the boys watched a movie in HD and the girls went upstairs and played games. Hey Mom - "Stop stah-ring at the maun-kez" Anywho, it was a blast.

Thanksgiving day we went to Richard's brothers house and spent the afternoon with them. I have 4 more delightful kiddos to brag about now. The boys were so much fun to do a crafty project with. I think it's safe to say that I'd be ther favorite aunt if we saw them more than once a year.



Friday I slept in and read then we picked up Ty from his dads house and played with him for a few hours. (Richard had to work.) Saturday I got to sleep in late and read again. Oh how I love days like that. Saturday night we had a movie extravaganza at mom and dads. We watched Spider Man 3 and Ratatouille. I liked them both. My favorite movie quote was "It sounds like Rat Patootie" Lovely weekend to end a lovely week.

Week in summary

Man, I thought my calendar would clear right up now that I've been released from young womens. (Actually, that may be why I've been able to do so much extra stuff.) This week has been full and fun. Monday was a quality family night, Tuesday I went to the temple twice (at 11am and 7pm) for Enrichment, Wednesday I had an Enrichment Board meeting, Thursday we went to see Allison in her opera at TWU, Friday we had Tyler spend the night for the first time ever (so glad my sister will share her kid with me), and Saturday I got my hair cut (yay I feel cute again) and we hosted a ward dinner group (I'm so glad we are participating in this. It was really really neat. I really like having friends at church.)

Here's a photo from Allison's opera. I forgot all about taking photos until the curtain went down at the very end so I only have this one photo. It was a James Bond spoof. Her opera class developed the opera and it was actually quite delightful except for the 3 unfortunate numbers where Juan Bond awkwardly caressed the women he was singing with. Seriously, seriously uncomfortable. Allison was pretty amazing and I don't think that's just the bias talking. If I knew how to do it, I would totally put the video of her song on my blog. . . Maybe it's just as well, because you'd be totally jealous if you heard it.

Cutest unicorn ever!!

Just had to share this pic. It's my sweet little niece (and the cutest unicorn ever!)

Our new puppy - Sparky

Just wanted to post a picture of our new puppy Sparky:

He came to our house Friday night and went to the Hurst ward Halloween party with me. Then we came home and played doggie (he likes to be called Sparky when he's a doggie) and Xbox and watched a movie. After the movie, Peter Pan and Tinkerbell came to pick him up.

I got to get me one of those that doesn't have to go home with someone else.

Southlake ward harvest festival

The Southlake ward has this neat tradition that they do instead of a Halloween party. They have a harvest festival. It's at someone's home and they rent a bounce house and have horseback rides and a cotton candy machine and popcorn machine. They have a chili cook-off and all sorts of good stuff. This year Richard and I decided to be little red riding hood and the big bad wolf. We decided the morning of the harvest festival so it was pretty creative. Sadly we only got a photo of Richard's face paint but not of us together. We will definitely have another go for our ward party on Friday.

(The big bad wolf just after he ate grandma.)

(Our cute little ninja "Shrader" aka Shredder from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.)

(In the bounce house.)

Before / After

Before (on the left) and After (on the right) - if you click on the image it'll enlarge

Different rims, driver side mirror, removed emblems and patched hole

spoiler and cool license plate with Richard's intials (well the RW at least)

eyebrow spoilers, removed antenna

It's exciting stuff. Now we just need to work on the inside.

How about a serious post?

Richard and I have started the adoption process. We are going through a group called Arrow Child and Family Ministries. We are looking at their foster/adopt program. We've completed the first 11 hours of training. We have like 35 hours to go. So far we are very impressed with the group and their Christian approach to family. We still have a bunch of stuff to do before they decide if they will actually take us on as a part of their progrm. (We'll keep you posted as our progression moves forward.) We are hoping to adopt one or two children, age birth to 8 years old, male or female. One of the things that appeals to me is that the group encourages prospective families to stay open to the Lord's will. We plan on doing just that.

Dancing and DJ!

What a great night! I went to tap dance class with my bestest bud Joni! It was so fun. You shoulda seen Joni when she figured out the "break" after the "shim shams" - she was really jazzed. My goal in that class is to become friends with the lady in the back who has never danced before. I think she thought she was getting into a beginner class but the teacher doesn't really teach to the beginners - she teaches to her 5 "intermediate" students that have taken her class before. Oh well, what can I say for a rec center dance class?

Joni and I went out to ice cream after class and to top off the awesome night - Joni got me DJ the Cars car that I posted about! This gives us all the main characters that we have been trying to find. We have 35 cars not including Sarge who we had to send back to Mattel because of lead based paint. For right now, I think we are considering ourselves done. (We actually just found out that they made Mia and Tia so we might consider adding them to our collection someday but it's not at the top of our list.) Here's a little pic of our collection.

So sassy!

How adorably cute is my sister's new ultra-short hairdo? I'm a little jealous that she is able to pull it off so well. (When my hair is super short I mostly look like a boy.) Crazy mad dog props to my sassy sis.

Only one of my favorite photos ever!

Seriously, how cute is my dad?! And how priceless is the expression on my face?

Take me out to the ballgame

For recognition from work I received 4 tickets and a parking pass to a Rangers game. At first I was just like "Oh. Cool." But it turned out to be a really neat form of recognition. The seats were behind home plate about 18 rows up. We parked right across the street in reserved parking. It was a great game. We took some friends and had a great time. I think I could enjoy supporting the Rangers if we had this sort of luck with free seats and parking every time.

WANTED to complete our collection

Well guys we pretty much are down to looking for DJ for our Cars cars collection. If you see him at your local Wal-Mart, Target, Toys R Us, etc buy him and we will totally reimburse you.

For Jonathan

This is the 76th battalion Firefly/Serenity fan group marching in a parade at Dragon Con. The 3rd dude in the row closest to the camera (circled in green) is carrying the fusil that Richard and Dad made. It's basically a rocket launcher type deal. There was a contest and Richard and Dad won so the battalion adopted the design as their official fusil. We were going to go to Dragon Con but it didn't work out as originally planned. Here's another picture of the fusil up close and personal.

Star Wars and a birthday boy

This weekend was full and fun! Saturday we went to the Star Wars exhibit at the museum. It was crazy busy and a little pricey but we had a great time. We got to the museum at 2:45 and stood in line for 30 minutes to get our time stamped tickets to enter the exhibit at 5:30. We had a couple hours to fill so we went to DQ and to the Cowgirl museum. Unfortunately the battery in my camera died so I didn't get many pictures of the actual exhibit. But I got some great pics on the turtle outside.

Sunday we celebrated Tyler's 4th birthday. He was so excited. It was so much fun. My favorite part was when he opened the gift from my parents and exclaimed, "A movie. . ." then turned it over "about Jesus!" He really is quite a cutie. My niece Ainsley was way cute too. She had a great time with the party blower. I love being an aunt.

Amazing day of friends!

I had the greatest friend day today! I got to drive to work with my best friend Richard, I got to be excited about the Allstate Accounting choir with my dear friend Rashel, I had the best email chain in ages with my eternal friends Beth, Mandy and Stef, and I got to eat lunch with my best twin Allison, I talked on the phone with my delightful friend (& mother) Teresa and I got some quality face time with my BBF Joni. How lucky can one woman get?! Now I just need to get all my friends on the blogging bus with me so I can stay better connected!

I'm tired as all get out and just hoping for a good night's sleep tonight because Saturday morming we'll be getting up early to have a yard sale. Sigh.

I wonder how my dear Dr. Dad is doing after his first day teaching at the University of Southern Mississippi...? I bet he did great!

Done with reality shows for awhile

Well, we watched the finale of America's Got Talent tonight. It was mostly lame (especially the performance by David Hasselhoff). But the ventriloquist guy Terry Fator won and that was cool. Terry Fator did a duet with Kermit the Frog and that was really neat.

The thing I dislike about these reality shows is the way they mess with the finalists minds. They do that on American Idol and it just makes me mad. "And the next person to be kicked off the show is . . . Bob.....'s competitor Fred." "And the winner is . . .coming up after the break." It's just not right. I like how So You Think You Can Dance they just get on with it. "Lacey's not in the top 2." "Sabra wins." Nice and easy - no mind games.

Now that this show is over, we can go back to no tv on week nights.

But I really want it...

So we found this cool vintage store that sells records and old clothes and collectable junk and I really want this couch, table & chair set. Doesn't it just remind you of the Jetsons?