Dancing Queens

The weekend before last we celebrated Shawna's last night as a bachelorette here in H-tizzle.  Ironically, we celebrated her final night of singledom on her 6 year anniversary.  What better way to cap off 6 years of togetherness than by splitting up and getting rowdy with your girlfrans?

We kicked the evening off at a fancy schmancy hotel downtown where we rented a suite.  Dena, Brianna, Cynthia, Sue, Caitlin & I arrived at the hotel early in order to properly bachelorette-ize the place (read: decorate with Willies).  By the time we were finished, the suite was bursting with streamers, champagne, paper lanterns, champagne, James Coney Island hotdogs, and assorted cheeses.  Did I mention champagne?  If those aren't the ingredients of a good time, I apparently have never had one.

We spent the early portion of the evening answering deep, philosophical questions about Austin & Shawna's relationship and learning a great deal about loafers, Twilight and one another.  After that we hit the town.  Suzilla sweet-talked us into Live at the Bayou (... maybe Bayou Live?) free of cover.  From there we proceeded to dance our tails off between intermittent bull-riding for no less than 3 hours.  I feel confident that we requested Britney songs about 10x more than the DJ had previously experienced in his whole career.

Throughout the course of the evening a cell phone, Dena's boots and a beverage holder were all sacrificed to the Bachelorette gods.  I would say that's a small price to pay for one of the best nights in recent history.  We love you Shawna!

Look out world.

Hot dog eating contest anyone?

Hotel Employee:  Did someone order 7 buckets of ice?
Dena:  Yes.

Hotel Employee:  Sorry, we only have 5.

Caitlin, Jen, Julie & Mary.

Brianna, Jenn, Melanie, Julie, Jen & Jamie.  That's a lot of J.

Jamie, Sue, Katie, JK & Dena Olan Mills-ing with the best of them.

Cynthia, Melissa, Shawna & Eva.

Couch potatoes- Jen, Jules & I.

A sampling of the harem getting the night started.

Mrs. Schamble & I - it's all fun & games until someone pays $20 for a shot.

Oh, hey you!

Pure awesome.

Let the dance-off begin...

Gettin' it.

The head pet... newest dance craze, sweeping the nation.

Bachelorette love.

The bull was ALSO celebrating the bachelorette.

Caitlin in the DJ booth.  Of course.

The Shawna Fan Club.

Rolaaaaaaaaa

Okay, so I'm a terrible mother!  I hope that when I have a child (a "human puppy" to quote Ryan) that I do a far superior job documenting their young life than I have with my precious whiskered one. 

Let me think- what's been going on in the little one's life?  Subsequent to a failed attempt on my part at walking Lola a short distance in heels after work (perhaps I'm too much of an optimist sometimes), we enrolled her in training.  While at PetsMart to select a training class, there were 3 available times.  A Monday evening, Tuesday evening and Sunday afternoon.  Without missing a beat, Ryan selected Sunday afternoon which I found suspect considering it would really hamper his NFL-watching plans.  I pointed out this fact and my charming husband said, "Wait, we have to be there?!"  Hopefully he has a more hands-on philosophy with child-rearing.

We are currently 4 classes into our 6 class course.  Lola has now learned to sit, to (kind of) walk on a leash, to look you in the face (watch), to come when called and to leave something on the ground alone until you tell her she can go get it.  The other dogs in the class have also learned to lay down.  Lola is not taking well to this.  I hope I can successfully document how she "lays" in a video.  It is more like a lion-esque pounce than a graceful lay.  Five out of six isn't bad, right?

Other than that- not a lot new in her little world.  She's still the biggest sweetheart on the planet.  I know I am a biased mother, but I don't think you will find many more affectionate, cuddly creatures than this one.  She's just a big, live teddy bear.  She continues to crack Ryan & I up on a daily basis.  Lately when she grows impatient with Ryan and I being tired after work and not wanting to play as long as she does, she will fling whatever toy she has for herself.  Probably the Diva in her- if you want something done right, you gotta do it yourself. 

Stats - as of the 16th, she's 7 months old.  At the last weigh-in, little bean was roughly 70 pounds and that was about 2 weeks ago.  So I'd guess she's creeping up on 75 at the moment.  Her tail strength can only be measured on the same scale as hurricanes.  I would put it somewhere between a category 4 and 4.5, dependent upon how many new people are around.

Now for the visual update.  You'll have to forgive me as I know this is going to wind up being an assortment of pictures from the last 3 months.  I'll try to put them in some kind of sequential order, but I can't make any promises.  We'll call this montage "Time Lapse Lola"- it will be just like National Geographic only with a dog rather than a venus fly trap or something.  Enjoy.

My blackberry clearly takes high quality photos.  This is Lola's usual stance while I get ready in the morning.  Goodness, she's so much tinier here. (sometime in September)

She fell asleep like this, with her nyla-bone still in her mouth.  Obviously she was concerned that if she were to leave it unattended, the temptation for Ryan & I to steal it would be far too great. (sometime in September)

After a swim, letting her ears flap in the breeze. (sometime in September)

Sweet new bed. (Early October)

I could not begin to understand why or how she finds this sitting position comfortable- but she must because she does it frequently.  (Early October)

Halloween.  Chewing off her own cuffs- so hardcore.  (Late October).

More Halloween. Also more proof my husband is a weirdo. (Late October)

Little bean looking as forlorn as I did in our living room before a couple of weeks ago.  (Sometime in November).

Definitely a Daddy's girl.  (Sometime in November)

Tweedle Dee & Tweedle Dum waiting for Turkey on Thanksgiving.  (Late November)

Turkey coma.  (Late November)

"No, no, my left side is my good side.  Get that one."  (Early December)

That nose is getting dangerously close to counter height. (Early December).

Playing with David's new puppy, Dallas.  (Mid December)

Giving Aunt Julie the eye. (Mid December)

This is no where near as emphatic as it usually is, but it's the best we could capture on film.  So just imagine this maneveur with more dramatic flair.

NSFJ: No place like home for the holidays

Today I'm feeling multi-task-erific, so I'm going to kill 2 birds (blog posts) with 1 stone (again: blog post) by sharing photos of our year 1 holiday decor efforts as well as pictures of the rebirth of our living room.  Lets cut to the chase, shall we?

First, we will start with the story you've most undoubtedly been losing the most sleep over.  When I last left off, our living room was in a dire state of affairs.  In case you do not recall, please see below for photographic evidence:

Same state of disarray, same wall-ed couch, different rug.

On December 3rd, not only were East & West Germany Ryan & I reunited by the removal of the wall, but on that very same day Rex came to our rescue and pulled a paint switcheroo.  Miracles do happen afterall!  So within a matter of 24 hours, our living room went from a mixed up little world to an inspiring, harmonized blank canvas.  Please see below:

Ahhhhh.  Can you feel the tan weight lifted?  (Pardon the terrible quality of these iPad photos.)

Once I could breathe a sigh of relief, I decided it was Christmas Decoratin' time (Jendan... that one was for you).  These photos are really being documented in order for me to some day (I hope) recognize that some progress has been made.  Heaven knows they're nowhere near Pintrest-worthy.

Coincidentally, this year's Christmas decor resulted in yet another tale of eventual triumph for the Martins, similar to the couch/living room story above.  You may recall the leaning tower of Martin fiasco from 2010.  Thanks to the magic of leftover wedding gift cards to Lowes and telling the husband how much it costs to buy a real tree each year, we are now the owners of a beautiful artificial tree that is as straight as Tiger Woods.  Photographic evidence:

Me & the Monster singing O' Christmas Tree.

She needs a little garland or pizazz, but that sounds like a project for post-holiday sales, doesn't it? 

In the couch portion above did I leave out the fact that I was left to supervise the arrival of the new furniture as well as the painting endeavour by myself?  While Ryan was at the U of H play conference championship?  WITHOUT TV and internet?  I am definitely expecting a Wife of the Year plaque for Christmas.  I can't say that I was a flawless project manager as Lola ended the day with Cottage Cream on both her tail and her ears, but what are you going to do? 

So, I used my temporary pioneer time (that's about when the internet and TV came to be, right? ;c) ) to attempt a project that I saw on Pintrest.  I saw the picture and I thought, how hard can it be?  Hot glue, wreath ring, and some ornaments... let's do this.  Approximately 6 hours, 15 glue sticks and 3 separate runs to retrieve more ornaments later I was the proud creator of the wreath below:

Ryan trying to steal my wreath's thunder.

If ever I get rich and famous for something, it will not be ornament wreaths, but I am very proud of this bad boy. 

This year we also decided that we should put up some lights so as to appear less anti-Christmas.  Of course, we do not own a ladder so my original plan was immediately shot.  We settled on a simple, easy plan and decided we'll add a little bit more each year.  Much like everything else in our plan, our targeted completion date is somewhere in the 2015-2020 range.  What?  You don't think it should take as long to put together a home as to build a highway?  I don't know what you're talking about. 

If C-9 lights were easier to come by, there'd be a lot more going on in this photo.

Which one of these is not like the others?

So, there you have it.  An update on the casa.  I hope that this holiday season finds your house happy, full of love and if you're lucky, a couch that is operational.

The mantle.  Via bad iPad photo.  This is like the outtakes that roll during the credits, right?

Garland haphazardly fixed to the bannister.  Aren't you glad you stuck around for this?

The very first Christmas decoration I bought for myself.  Annnnnd... scene.

Tour(key) of Texas

How do I get so behind on my blog?  Actually, at the moment I do know the answer and it is freaking Tony Soprano.  Ryan and I are about 10 years behind the general population and for the last few months we've been watching all the seasons of the Sopranos.  When I get home it's very difficult to make myself write words when all I can think about is whether Adriana and Chris will actually get married in the next episode or whether someone will actually give Paulie the whack upside his head he needed.  We finally just finished and I'm uber disappointed in the ending, but I am off on a digressing tangent.  So... back to Thanksgiving.

For those of you unaware, Thanksgiving took place recently.  Kind of a big deal in casa Martin.  It is my second favorite holiday behind Christmas and Ryan's second favorite behind opening day of college football season.  A love that strong can not be celebrated but just once, obviously.  So, we devoted Thursday to stuffing ourselves silly with the Martin family and Friday was reserved for over-eating with the Boarmans.

Wednesday evening and Thursday morning were spent with my awesome in-laws.  I enjoyed one of my favorite Martin family traditions - making sausage balls.  I am not sure that the monster-sized ones that Ryan rolled would have passed muster with Granny, but I have no doubt they entertained her.  We also all had a ball watching Tweedle Dee (Kylie) and Tweedle Dum (Lola) chase eachother around, watching bad TV and hanging out with eachother.  It goes without saying that the food was delicious, but obviously I'm going to go ahead and say it.  Best in show: sausage balls (tooooootally unbiased opinion) and the green bean casserole- mmmmmm.

Me?  In trouble?

Photographic evidence that Lola thinks she's a lap dog.

Being in the kitchen really brings out Ryan's enthusiastic side.

Lola is helpful.

Purdee tablescape.

In order to really solidify our own family comradery, Ryan and I made the bold decision to attend the UT/A&M game in College Station on Thursday afternoon.  Grandpa was kind enough to let us go with him and use his 2 spare tickets.  I expected this to end in Lola being the product of a broken home, but surprisingly we survived the game unscathed.  I attribute this to the fact that from kick off to the time we were finally outside city limits we said 0 words to one another.  Silence is indeed golden.  While I'll miss the tradition of posting up in front of the TV on Thanksgiving to watch the game, I hope that this will lead to a more harmonious dia de Turkey, and less fanny packs, for yours truly.  Thanks for all the memories over the years!

Before the great silence.

Ms. Laura and I's last minute hook 'ems.

Kyle Field.

Friday morning we woke up early, packed up our belongings and our whisker-face and headed to Conroe for Thanksgiving: the Sequel.  Again- the food was amazing.  Best in show here was Mamacita's homemade stuffing.  Love that stuff!  The remainder of the weekend was spent enjoying a Boarman family bonfire, a wild game of Taboo and trying to keep Lola from stealing Abby's belongings.

Champagne and string cheese.  I married a man of culture.

Luckily no eyebrows were lost in the making of this photo.  My Dad is 6'5", for reference purposes.

A little excessive for s'mores.

"You use this to travel through Europe...."

Taboo is exciting!

Overall, it was another Thanksgiving for the history books.  Ryan and I are so thankful for our friends and family.  Thank you for all that you do... and all that you feed us.  I hope that everyone else's Thanksgivings were equally as fun-filled.