Introducing...

Max! Thursday night we went to look at some puppies and decided to get one. We picked him then but didn't pick him up until today. That gave us time to go get everything we would need. I was nervous about picking him up today. I felt like overnight we were becoming "parents." It has been a good day so far. Max is VERY mellow. He has been laying around and napping all day. I hope he'll sleep tonight. He has done very good at using the bathroom in the yard so far. I think we're off to a great start!

Isn't he cute? He's really dark so it has been hard to get a good picture of him. These are the best I have so far.

World Series Tickets

We did not score World Series tickets! We didn't try very hard. We decided we would rather save the money for a good vacation next year. I ended up trying to get some anyway, but I wasn't supposed to. We decided to have the Sunday School class over Saturday night for a World Series party. I'm not sure if anyone will come yet...I hope so! I will be frantically cleaning and cooking on Saturday if people rsvp to make sure we have enough food and a good variety of food.

I do have a friend that I worked with in Dallas that is coming this weekend for one of the games. She has a friend in Boulder, and they bought tickets on eBay. It would be REALLY fun if I got to see her over the weekend.

Country Music

I really get a kick out of listening to music and singing along (even though I don’t want anyone to hear me singing). I like many kinds of music…Christian, country, instrumental, 80s love songs, etc. Thursday night we went to an event that was put on by a local country station to hear music from “the future stars of country.” For $9.69 (for the location of the radio station on the air) we got a dinner from Texas Land & Cattle and the concert where Jypsy, Rissi Palmer, and James Otto performed. It was definitely worth the $20 we paid. The food was not excellent nor was it bad. And the entertainment was good. The first band Jypsy had an unusual sound. The group is 3 sisters and their brother. Their sound is different and the lead singer Lilly May had an incredible voice. Her voice almost sounded like it belonged in Irish music. We both really liked them. It was difficult to hear the words of Rissi Palmer’s songs. I am not sure if it was the venue or what. I had heard a blurb from one of her songs on the radio and completely understood that. We didn’t stay for James Otto although I really wanted to hear him. I have learned over the years that M is not really one for staying until the end of much. I will give him a bit of credit here. He sustained a muscle injury early this summer when he got a concussion that has not completely healed yet. I think he aggravated the injury when he was playing football last Sunday with the community group guys. And then when we did a little bit of dancing Thursday night, it just was not pretty for that injury. So we left early because he was in pain. I certainly can’t blame him for that, can I? It was a fun date night!

First Snow!

We woke up this morning to the first snow of this winter. There is not much on the ground, and I don't expect it to last long. In fact, it is supposed to be in the 70s again by Wednesday. Even though I am now 30, there is still something magical about the snow. I am glad I can see it as I look out the window from the warm house.

Sushi Last Night

Last night we had a birthday dinner with M's aunt and uncle that live about an hour from us. We met at a sushi place in their city. It is seriously an amazing restaurant. It may be the best sushi I've ever had. It has become a favorite place for us to go when we get together. M's aunt took this picture of us. You will see more pictures of us on this blog because I am starting to take my camera wherever we go. It was a fun night!

I want one of these!

M and I have talked about getting a dog for a really long time. This is really the first place we have lived where we could have one since we were renting before we bought our house. I am tired of talking about it and now want to get one. I am currently reading some books about training and having a puppy. There are a few things we need to take care of before we get one...build a dog run in the yard, put in a doggy door, get rid of some extra furniture that is in the garage, etc. These things are not happening soon enough for me. One of the neighbors we met today has an 11 week old yellow lab. He was PRECIOUS! I wanted to puppy-nap him, but it would be hard to hide since this is one of our neighbors. The kids at this particular house were so cute...they brought out their puppy, then a cat, and then a second cat. Aren't kids just friendly?

I want a puppy!!!

Meeting the Neighbors

We have now lived in our house for almost 9 months. Up until today, we have really only met the neighbors very briefly in 3 houses around ours. I don't want to continue to be one of those people who does not know my neighbors. I really hate that about Americans. We can be so closed off from everyone. So I spent last night making homemade chocolate chip cookies and putting these little containers together so we could entice our neighbors to like us. Most people like food, so I thought if we took them food, they would in turn like us. (That is seriously my thinking...there has got to be something wrong with me, right?) I spent most of the evening coloring the silly little houses on these things. I should have known better, but it was a bit of fun for me. Today we went to the 12 closest houses around ours to meet our neighbors. People were only home at 4 of the houses. I was so disappointed...I almost wanted to cry (I know I am really sensitive - and that I use parenthesis too much as well). We left the boxes on everyone's door step, but that doesn't really help us to meet them. I put our names, address, and phone number on the back side of the paper with the houses on them so that people can reach us if they ever need anything. I guess I can be happy that I did my part to meet people. I have to say it is frustrating though when I, the shy and awkward person, makes the effort and some people just don't care to know their neighbors. Maybe we will be able to develop some relationships here. It will definitely be a long and slow process.

Just after I wrote this, the doorbell rang. Someone who was not home when we dropped off our package earlier stopped by to say hello. M is actually over there right now helping the guy with some of his landscaping. Isn't that cool? So now we have met another neighbor.