Trunk-or-Treat

Trey and I got to spend Halloween with Gavin, Elizabeth, Eli, and Ella. We went to Trunk-or-Treat at their church. Elizabeth's parents and my mom were there too. Oh, and Finnigan. He was quite a hit. Trey kept telling people he was a chihuahua dressed up as a Great Pyrenees. That's my man!

Ella as a parrot with Liz


Eli as a pirate


I taught Eli some great pirate phrases such as, "Walk the plank!" and "Where's me booty?" Elizabeth says it was Eli's idea to be a pirate and have Ella as a parrot. What a little genius! I'm pretty sure he's going to take over the world some day.

Amazing Football Finish

If you like college football, you have to watch this. Apparently there are 15 laterals thrown on this last play of the game. As my dad always said, "Don't ever quit!"

CONGRATS!!

Just wanted to say CONGRATULATIONS to Ashley and Kelly on their new little girl, Ella. Beautiful name by the way. They are wonderful friends who I have known for farther back than I can honestly remember. They were sweet enough to have a little party for me at their house when I came to Michigan in September. They even lent me a comfy pair of pregnancy pants (I say lent because I promise I will send them back :) and let me nap on their bed. In exchange, I only had to let them in on the secret of internet TV. All us Texans love you guys and we are so thankful God has blessed you with Ella!
Photo taken post "the incident"

Sports, Culture, and Family

SPORTS
On Thursday, Elijah, Gavin, my dad, and I went to an FC Dallas soccer game against Chivas USA. I personally thought it was a great game despite there being no goals. Everyone played really well so it was fun to watch. At each game they give out some sort of item. We got a great Gatorade water bottle (can't ever have too many of those!).

They also were giving every one these wigs to wear that looked like the hair of #8 Juan Toja. So we had a great time putting on the wigs and laughing at ourselves, although Eli was sort of scared of them.


Me and my dad with the wigs on while Eli chows on a hot dog


Me and Gavin


My favorite nephew, Eli



CULTURE
****WARNING****nudity ahead
On Saturday, Trey and I went to the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth to see the Ron Mueck sculptures. They were incredible and so unbelievably life-like.






My favorite was "Wild Man" (below) because he really did look like he was going to jump out of the chair and run screaming out of the room.


Then we met up with Garrett and ate burgers at Fred's in Fort Worth.


FAMILY
On Sunday, we went over to Dave and Heather's house. They're our transplanted Seattle BFFs who God truly blessed us with up there and then amazed all of us by bringing them down here. We always have a great time with them. Anyhow, we went over there to watch the Cowboys' game and we have always brought our dogs over to hang with their dogs. They used to watch Layla for us when we went out of town and we would take care of Howser and Moffet for them. Anyhow, the dogs were all in their backyard and I went out there at halftime to see how everyone was doing, and all of the sudden Howser starts trying to get in Finnigan's face and then he attacks him! Howser was intent of kicking sweet Finn's butt and Finnigan didn't even try to fight back. After it all was over, Finn had a nasty gash under his eye. The vet said he doesn't need stitches, but he looks so bad! Dave and Heather felt terrible, but they're dogs so what are you gonna do?

Big Fatty Greek Wedding

So I have not written in awhile, and I really should be writing about my 10 year high school reunion and my trip to Michigan or about Sarah's wedding in Cape Cod and our trip to Boston. Instead, I am a little behind and I decided I just need to get going. So I am going to write about current things and get to the past when I have time.

This last weekend, Trey and I and my friend Anya went to our friend Lindsey's wedding. She is Greek Orthodox and the wedding was 100% Greekified. Much of the ceremony was in Greek and there were lots of names like Cristos and Efthiomos, and her new last name is Petropoulous. The ceremony was at the Holy Trinity Greek Orthodox Church of Dallas . It was so beautiful! It was a traditional Greek ceremony, very similar to the Catholic mass wedding ceremonies, but with a lot more chanting and singing/talking. This is the best picture I could get of the church since you can't use flash as it is a wedding and not a fashion show. So there was lots of delicious Greek food (hence the "fatty" title) and circle dancing and Greek toasts and "Ompah!" going on. We had a really great time seeing a more ethnic wedding than we are used to.

Expensive Summer

Trey and I had planned on having a low-key, almost boring summer. It was extra long due to the TX law saying we can't start school until right around Labor Day, so I have been off since May 25. That is almost 3 months! So with only a trip to Florida planned for me and nothing for Trey, I anticipated a lot of lounging around and reorganizing of closets and drawers. Well, things turned out much busier, and expensive, than we imagined.

Trey spent last week in Fredericksburg helping his family build their cabins for their new business, Der Fels.




He then made a stop in Austin to do some music stuff before heading home.

I just returned from a last minute trip to Rocky Mountain National Park with my mom and dad. We drove up there and did some incredible hikes and stayed at a bed and breakfast (my dad's first). The best part of the trip was the 5.5 mile, 300 ft elevation hike which turned into the 11 mile, 1,600 ft elevation hike that went straight uphill for 3 hours. Minor mistake on my mom's part. It all turned out ok because on the way down we saw two huge male moose (meese? :) in the meadow.



After all this fun stuff, we thought we would be ending our summer on a high note. We were quite ticked then, when we headed to the car yesterday to find out it had been broken into by some idiots who thought we had anything worth stealing. They broke out the back passenger window and threw everything around. Luckily they didn't steal anything since we don't own anything worth taking. They broke into 14 cars in our complex that night. So this is what our car looks like right now.



We don't quite have the money right now to fix it after Layla's surgery and then emergency blood transfusion (never did write about that drama), one plane ticket to Michigan, 2 plane tickets to Boston, 2 vehicle registrations, a flat tire, a cracked windshield, and no paycheck for Trey until the end of September. So now I am humbled at being one of those people on the freeway with the wind flapping around my plastic window covering. I would like to give a shout out to Dave Ramsey because had we not been following his plan, we would have been in quite a pickle. Hip hip hooray for emergency funds!

I'm a Winner!

I love to enter contests. I entered the HGTV Dream Home contest every day for 3 months. So I was quite excited when I arrived home from my last minute vacation to find out I had won something! Even though it is small, IT'S FREE!