New Patio = a lot more work than we thought...

We have our new patio, and it looks great!! We can't wait to have good weather outside so we can really enjoy it. Here are the before and after pictures:

We basically replaced the whole patch of dead grass with an extended patio.

The mess the workers left behind, however, is unbelievable. Apparently, they decided to drive the cement truck into our back yard, and they left us some horrible ruts in the ground to fix. They left tools, string, wooden stakes, and chunks of cement all over the place, so Travis and I spent Sunday afternoon cleaning things up. Travis bought over forty bags of soil to fill in the ruts and spent at least five hours out there filling in the holes and pounding the dirt back into the ground. The major ruts are fixed, but there is still more work to do and soil to put back in place. I picked up all the trash they left around the yard (with Rio's help) and filled in a couple of holes (yes, Travis did most of the work...I was grading papers!!).

The grass will hopefully grow back in the spring, and Travis has done a lot of work to level the ground, so hopefully it won't be too noticeable. For the rest of the winter, though, the ground is muddy and dead. We decided to put up a temporary chicken-wire fence for the dogs so they wouldn't need a bath everyday and to keep them from digging more holes in our freshly laid dirt. The dogs only have about 1/5 of the yard now, but at least they are clean and our dirt is staying where we put it. We haven't tested the sprinkler system again yet...

Ahh, the joys of home ownership. :-)

Internet, Cable, and Heat - Restored!!

You never know how wonderful something is until you lose it....

We haven't had internet, cable, A/C or heat since Thanksgiving, when we discovered that the dogs had chewed through every wire in the backyard that they could find. So, of course, the weather became really cold, and we were finally desperate to fix the heat when the house was 58 degrees! Travis had been trying for a few days to fix it - he had spliced wires, hooked everything back up, and checked the system several times, but couldn't get it to work. The day after it was 58 degrees inside our house, I finally convinced him that I was COLD, and he called a repair guy. Turns out, it was only a blown fuse in the heater/AC unit that Travis didn't know about. Our house is gloriously warm and cozy now!

The cable and internet, though, was another story. Travis couldn't fix the wires the dogs had chewed through, so we had to call the cable company. After two missed appointments last week, they finally came out today and fixed the whole thing for free. Wires had to be completely replaced! Both the units are now bundled in chicken wire, PVC pipe, and zip ties, and we are hoping the dogs can't get to them now. :-)

While the cable and internet were down, Travis and I found ourselves doing all sorts of crazy things, like going outside! We spent the afternoon on Saturday driving around Del Rio and taking pictures (I was really excited about doing that...Travis pretended he was excited too). We also cooked a lot more, spent a longer time eating dinner, and found time to spend with the puppies and each other more often. I am very grateful, though, to have everything up and running again!

"Oh no, mommy, I would NEVER chew on your wires!!"

"What, who, ME??!?!?"

(Not the greatest pictures ever...it was hard to get them to stop for two seconds!)

Our newly reinforced AC unit which (we hope) is now puppy proof!

The white pipe on the right now houses our cable cords

And, from our tour around the glorious town of Del Rio:

Yes, we live three miles from the border, and yes, this is me standing in front of the border fence between Mexico and Texas. Not many people can say that they have done this! :-)

Christmas Tree!!!

I was really excited to pull out all of my Christmas decorations and get them set up in our new house!! We turned on the movie Elf (awesome Christmas movie) and pulled out all the Christmas boxes from the garage. After a quick trip to Home Depot, we had all the decorations we needed! We have a wreath on the door, wonderful smelly Christmas candles, garland and lights in the kitchen, and a beautiful tree in our living room. Luckily, I have a giant spray can of cat repellant, and it has worked for years to keep animals away from the tree. It's working perfectly again this year, so I'm hoping we can keep the tree standing, even with all the puppies and kitty running around! And, after all the shopping I did this past week, I have lots of presents to put under the tree (once I get a chance to wrap them!).

I love the Christmas season, and I am really excited to have someone to share in the decorating and celebrating all month long at home! :-) And, I'm looking forward to seeing our families again in three weeks in Dallas!

Merry (early) Christmas!!

Thanksgiving

The weekend before Thanksgiving, Travis and I had a party and invited everyone over for fried turkey. Travis was really excited to use his new deep fryer from the wedding, and the turkey turned out great!!

Then, Travis and I made the trip to Houston to see our parents for Thanksgiving. We brought along the puppies and the kitty so they could meet the grandparents!! All three of them are doing a GREAT job of traveling in the car, and we really hope it lasts. They love getting into their crates (although the cat does have some hesitation, but he eventually calms down), and they all sleep once the car starts rolling. The only one I have to worry about is Travis, who likes to get everyone all excited and awake for no reason except to see them. :-) The picture below is Percy, perfectly happy to smush himself into the smallest part of a his large crate and sleep like a baby:

We spent Thursday and Friday with Diane and Saturday and Sunday with my parents. Diane made a great turkey dinner on Thursday, complete with all the Thanksgiving fixings. My favorite thing, though, was Ted's greenbean casserole. So yummy!! Then, she made a great fish dinner on Friday. We enjoyed Salt Grass Steak House on Saturday with my parents, as well as two delicious breakfasts. So, while moderation is key, this was definitely not the weekend to start a weight loss plan. I'll be starting that tomorrow. :-)

The Thanksgiving spread.... And, from left to right: JJ, Travis, Catherine (Travis' cousin who was one of our bridesmaids, Ted, and Jerry (Travis' uncle)

We had not see our parents since the wedding, so it was really fun to see everyone again! The dogs and kitty behaved beautifully and have already been invited back again. It was a fun weekend and a great end to a nice long Thanksgiving vacation. There are so many things we are blessed by and grateful for, and I was happy to celebrate with family all weekend!

This is just a picture I felt like I should have:

It's a sign we see pretty often on all our trips back to Del Rio!

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

A Visit with the Twins!

Finally, Travis and I had the chance to go to Dallas and visit our niece and nephew. They are about a month old now, and we were both pretty excited to see them!! We went up on Thursday night, and I stayed home with Kelly for the weekend while Travis and his brother went hunting. Kelly and I entertained ourselves with the babies, shopping, and ridiculous Lifetime movies, and we had a great time!

The babies are so precious!!! I am holding Avery, and Travis is holding Carson. This was Travis' first time to hold such a little baby, and he did a great job! :-)

My favorite thing that Kelly did was swaddle up the babies when they were sleeping. They were so adorable, and I couldn't help but take pictures!! Carson is on the left; Avery is on the right. Avery is a little louder than Carson is and cries a lot to get attention. She was usually the one who got her way the first time! Carson is pretty laid back and is usually patient about waiting his turn. You could just hold him and he was happy. Avery liked to be walked around, rocked, moved, jostled...anything to keep her moving!

Kelly (my sister-in-law and proud mama!) holding Avery, and Travis holding Carson.

Bulldog

Our family grows yet again....

Travis will tell you it was my idea, and he's right. I knew we'd be getting one eventually, and I decided that I would rather just have two puppies all at once, rather than training one dog and then going through the entire process again in two years. So, we drove to Georgetown last weekend, and we picked up a full blood English Bulldog from a breeder Travis found online. We have named him Percy, short for Sir Percival Worthington. Travis just calls it Bubba. :-)

Here are some pictures of our newest pup:

There are not enough words to explain how excited Travis is about his new puppy. This dog is going to be (hmm...already is...) spoiled rotten!!

Percy is a chocolate and white bulldog, and currently weighs in at 14.8 pounds.. We like the little pigment on his nose that looks like he is wearing a nose ring!

Rio LOVES her new playmate and is very excited to have him around. They play together all day and are completely worn out by the time I get home from work. They are keeping each other entertained all day, which is nice! They both love to chew, so we have filled the backyard with all sorts of fun toys. Rio also loves to grab on to all of Percy's extra skin and pull on it...

The puppies are completely worn out by the end of the day, and they happily climb into their separate crates to sleep. They are sleeping through the night without any trouble, and Percy has already started snoring. It's also very cute how they mimic each other in EVERYTHING, even the way they sleep!!

Pumpkin Carving

On Monday night, we had some friends over for pizza, chocolate fondue, and pumpkin carving!  We had a blast, and when everyone came over, we ended up standing around, munching on food and talking all night!  One of our friends brought her dog over to play with Rio, and another of my friends brought her two little boys, so there was lots of screaming and barking for most of the night.  It was fun to watch everyone running around in our big backyard!  We ate pizza off our halloween plates, and then we ate lots of yummy chocolate fondue.  By the time we finished all of that, we were stuffed, and everyone was too tired to carve pumpkins!

So, we said goodnight to everyone, and after they left, Travis and I carved our pumpkins together while watching Hocus Pocus.  It just wouldn't be Halloween without Hocus Pocus and freshly carved pumpkins!

We had lots of help with our carving.  I think both animals ate at least one pumpkin seed, and Rio tried to eat a handful of the orange stringy stuff from inside the pumpkin too...

Mijo was really desperate to be helpful and just couldn't stay away!

Our little puppy couldn't handle all the excitement of the evening, and she passed out on the floor (after eating all the pumpkin inards....)

Striking a pose with the pumpkins!

Our finished products, which are now proudly displayed on our front porch!

Happy Halloween!

South Texas Maize!

As Travis dutifully noted this evening, I am definitely a fan of the fall season.  I love the changing of the leaves (which sadly doesn't happen here in Texas very often...), all the beautiful colors of the season (I just updated my wardrobe to match!), and all the fall festivities.  Del Rio, it turns out, actually has a season other than HOT, and it has been beautiful here the past few weeks!  We are seeing temperatures in the 60s and 70s throughout the day, and I have actually taken out my box of sweaters and started using them!

Something I have been dying to do since we moved out here was the South Texas "Maize" in Hondo, Texas.  It was pretty fun.  They have set up a nice facility with lots of activities, including a maze for people to wander through.  

Check out their website: http://www.southtexasmaize.com/

They give you various clues about how to get through, but Travis and I discovered that we are both far too intelligent to do something like this!  We tried to get lost, but couldn't.  We were just so aware of our surroundings and have good senses of direction, so we had no trouble figuring out which way to go (despite my many attempts to confuse us both...).  The rest of the events provided were geared towards kids, so we wandered around but didn't really do much besides the maze.  It was pretty fun, though!  It's the first maze I've seen since the one I did with my sister in Ohio (and that's a whole other story...)  Here are some pictures:

In the maize, wandering around with all the children dressed in Halloween costumes...

Yes, I am the cow.  I couldn't convince Travis that he wanted to be the horse, so it was just me looking silly. :o)

And here's Travis responding to "Do something cute in the pumpkin patch!"

And, just because it was really funny, here are some pictures from my adventure with my sister in a cornfield maze in Ohio.  We got hopelessly lost in the corn, and we were really worried that the sun was going down and it was getting dark.  We were REALLY excited to finally find the exit!  I believe there was some kissing of the ground outside the maze....

Posing in front of the HUGE cornfield in Ohio during Katie's freshman year of college (2003?).

Posing with the corn in the maze...we had a fun time...

...until we got hopelessly lost!  Notice how huge the map is - we were on the left side of the map and the exit was on the right.  While we wandered around, gradually getting more and more lost, we kept asking ourselves "who does this!?!?"

Anyways, we had a blast!  Hooray for fall!!

Playful Pup and Lazy Cat!!

Rio is growing like a weed...she has gained three pounds in two weeks and is now weighing in at a hefty 13.7 pounds.  She likes her walks in the park, and she is working on her fetching skills.  Here are some fun videos we took of her:

Rio really loves to "help".

Our attempts at getting her to play fetch...some days are better than others.  

She gets distracted easily!

And, we have discovered that we have the laziest cat on this planet.  Mijo is so chill, and nothing seems to bother him or phase him at all.  He's weighing in at 7 pounds now, and he doesn't seem to be growing very much at all.  Check out the video:

The cat and dog have learned to love each other, and I spent the entire afternoon watching them chase each other around the house and the backyard.  The cat escapes from the dog by jumping on the back of the couch or the chairs, where the dog can't quite reach him.  They are really very cute amid all the hissing and barking that goes on!  They have officially worn each other out and are currently passed out on the floor... :o)

New Family Members!

This weekend, we drove to San Antonio and adopted two pets from the San Antonio Humane Society shelter.  They are just about the cutest things you have ever seen, and they are going to be quite a handful! :-)  We gave them Spanish names, since we got them while we were living in Del Rio.  We are pretty excited about having them!

This is Rio, and she is a two month old labrador/retriever mix.  She was abandoned at the shelter, and they don't really know where she came from.  Her mix and age are estimates.  She is really cute and playful, and we have found that she loves to chew.  We are keeping her entertained with lots of chew toys, and she has a crate to sleep in so we don't have to worry about her at night.  She is a fast learner and is pretty responsive to our voices.  She runs like a puppy, all wobbly and kangaroo-like, and it's hilarious to watch her slide across the wood and tile floors!!

And, this is Mijo.  His name comes from the name that all the parents call their kids around here - "mi hijo".  Most of the time the words are slurred together and sound like "mijo" so that is what we picked for the kitty!  He is about six months old and was abandoned at the shelter by an owner who had too many cats and was not allowed to keep them all in the apartment.  (And, by too many cats, I think that meant he had over five...Mijo was in a cage with five other cats, and they all apparently came in together!)  He is the most cuddly and sweet cat I have ever met.  He crawls up in our laps and flops over on his back to get his belly rubbed.  He has fallen off the couch twice after trying to roll around on us too much.  He's a little shy around the dog, but they appear to be getting used to each other!!  He's been exploring the house and is slowly getting more comfortable here.

Rio loves to play!!

They are playing pretty nicely together!!  They both looooove their toys! :-)

Del Rio Homecoming

Del Rio's homecoming week was pretty fun.  We dressed up in different outfits every day at school, had a big parade on Wednesday, and then the big game on Friday night!  Here are some pictures:

During the pep rally on Wednesday, our school salsa band performed.  I didn't even know we had a school salsa band, and they were pretty amazing!!

The seniors had also built a giant bonfire, which was lit during the pep rally.  It was HUGE!

And, the cheerleaders and the football players performed a dance together.  They were pretty good!  There were also several other skits and performances by the dance team, student council, and the band.  It was a pretty amazing show!  The band waited until dark, strapped flashlights to their legs and put glowing bands around their bodies and instruments, and they performed in the dark stadium.  It looked so awesome!

And then, the homecoming game on Friday night.  Here is the football team running out of the inflatable ram, through the cheerleaders' sign, and onto the field for the game.  I still can't get over how many kids there are!  The game was a blowout...when I left at third quarter, the score was 25-0.  I'm pretty sure we won!!

The RAMS flags that run back and forth across the stadium everytime we score a touchdown!

The homecoming ceremony was pretty cool too.  The band and the Belles team were out on the field.  The Air Force ROTC did a saber arch for each couple in the homecoming court as they walked across the field, took their pictures, and lined up, waiting for the announcement of the winners!  It was pretty neat.

A few days in Austin...

I went to Austin on Thursday and Friday to see some friends and also to watch my volleyball team play at the high school!  The team was made up of girls that I had coached for two years in middle school, and it was awesome to watch them play now!  Almost of them are taller than me now, and they have all become much better players!  They played some great games against the other team and made me proud!  It was great to see all of them again...I miss them!!

Here's some video I took of some amazing rallies.  I couldn't believe how well they were playing!!

The twins are here!!

On September 29, Carson Alan and Avery Elizabeth were born!  Avery weighed six pounds, and Carson was 5 pounds, 10 ounces.  The babies are precious, and we can't wait to go visit our new niece and nephew in Dallas!

House Updates

We've been doing a lot of work on our house, and it finally doesn't look like a storage center anymore!  All the boxes are unpacked and put away, and almost everything is in its place.  All that is left now is decorating.  Here are some pictures:

This is the new furniture we put in our entry hall, replacing the huge couch that was being stored there temporarily!

The finished roof that Travis replaced and painted, along with the brand new ceiling fan.

No more holes in the ceiling!

And, continuing to be the handyman, Travis put together the table, chairs, and the new grill we still had in boxes in our garage from the wedding!  They look great, and Travis loved using the new grill at our party last weekend!

My contribution to the landscaping in the front yard: two little cacti from Home Depot.  I planted them in the bed by the mailbox, and they look so cute!

And, yes, they have names.  The one on the left is called Tex, and the one on the right is named Little Red. :-)

Our next project:

We are planning to build a new patio to replace all this dead grass and make a larger area for the table and grill.  It's going to look really great when it is finished!!