lost toys

I know that every other post on here is about our dogs and how wonderfully cute they are and I am sure that most of you think I am crazy for thinking they are so darn cute.....but they are. so get over it.   

:)

Anyway, I have yet another video of sawyer being cute. He frequently loses his toy (the little green man) under the bed, couch, table etc. But he will sit there and wait for it to magically roll back to his mouth or until Ryan or I notice that he is sitting staring at the furniture. It is kinda cute though, you must admit. 

please pardon our ghetto camera. I dropped it and now makes funny noises as it focuses. oh, and please forgive my silly voice. it's a little ridiculous, i know. 

ENJOY

my bucket list

So, my mother spoke in church a while back and mentioned that she had a bucket list, in which she has been marking things off like skydiving! :-0 Now, I haven't seen the movie so I do not know exactly what a "bucket list" is but I have made my own list of things I wish to see/accomplish/learn here in the near future. I know most of you could really care less about what I plan on doing but I feel that my odds are better if I write them down and make it aware to others that these are things I plan on doing.  

SOOooooooooooooo........

Here Goes...

*read the twilight series

*actually read the harry potter series (never read ANY of them)

*Run a Half Marathon....then a marathon

*Go Skydiving

*See the Grand Canyon and Redwood Forrest

*Visit the Statue of Liberty

*Go scuba diving in Australia

*Learn how to sew

*Backpack (fo real) across Europe 

*Visit Fashion week in New York

*begin taking photography seriosuly

*Of course, become a mom :)

Of course there is always room to add to the list. I suppose that as I mark one thing off I should add a new one. We will see how far I get on this list. 

dog pound

here is a little video of all the dogs playing with each other. They sound mean but they are just enjoying everyone's company. We enjoyed having all of them together for a little while. 

 

my new do

well, I cut about 8 inches off my head the other day and i LOVE it!!! Here is a pic...

eeek it's IKE!!!

This is gonna be a long one....As all of you know, Ike hit Galveston and Houston with a vengeance and caused quite a bit of damage causing millions to lose power, thousands to have flooding and hundreds to lose their houses. Luckily, we weathered the storm pretty well and haven't had to endure more than we could handle. ThAnK GOodNeSS! Anyway, I think the best way to do this blog to keep it organized in thought and keep it from getting too long and rambly is to break it down by day.... SOOooooo....

~some seriously strong winds!~

:FriDaY: 

I (Danielle) had to work, as usual, I had to close the store which meant Ididn't get out of work until almost 11p.m. Ryan had to do a little business in Houston and the evacuation traffic had started to build and it took him 3 1/2 hours to get home when it normally only takes 1 1/2  hours. BUT a couple friend of ours was having a hurricane party in their garage to watch the storm come in which Ryan was able to enjoy. I made an appearance after I got off but was tired and ready to relax at our own home. Once we got home I changed into my comfy clothes, settled on the couch and watched the t.v. document every inch that IKE made closer to Galveston. THEN THE WIND STARTED! At about 1:30 AM the wind started to howl like it does in the scary movies! it was creepy! So, of course, we went outside to play in the creepy weather watching the wind blow and the rain come down. Finally, at 4:30 in the morning we got tired of that and finally went to bed. 

~watching the storm come in~

:SaTUrDay:

I had to work during the HURRICANE, but it's ok at least it was worth it.....NOT!! As you can guess no one was in the store. AnYWaY, while I was at work Ryan went into Houston to see his family and make sure they were ok and to assess the damage done to the city, everyone at that point was still out of power and water. Once they were all done at the house Ryan made his way back to college station with Jenny and her two dogs, Emma and Austin. We were glad to have them at the house and happy to open our home to them! I know Harley and sawyer definitely loved the company! After I got off work I came home and all of us had another little hurricane party with some steak, corn and potatoes, a good southern meal!  YummY! With a full tummy we just sat on the couch, watched some football and then soon went to bed. Dinner was great, THANKS HONEY! :) 

~our hurricane dinner~

~shirley's front yard~

:sUnDAy:

After two days without power and water, Shirley (Ryan's mom) decided it would be nice to shower and sit in a cool house, so she came up to join the rest of us with her two dogs. With everyone in the house it was quite a circus! 4 adults and 6 dogs. And these dogs aren't small, they are all over 60 lbs! At least they all LOVE each other and get along very well. After I got home from work Ryan and I decided it would benice to take Jenny and Shirley out to Lake Bryan, our fave spot and eat dinner. It was nice, cool and reminiscent of fall weather we never get to experience. After our nice dinner we came home to all the pups played with them for a little while and then went to bed.

~ALL THE PUPS~

~clockwise starting with ryan, sawyer, harley, emma, sugar, barkley and hiding in the back is austin~

:MoNDAy:

I finally had a day off so we got up outta bed and kinda just hung around the house. Jenny and Shirley were a little antsy to get back to houston so we decided we would go down to houston as well and see some of the damage in person. We grabbed some lunch here at a GREAT restaurant called Koppe Bridge, amazing food! After lunch we loaded up all the dogs, filled up our tanks and headed down south. Once we finally arrived in houston, dropped off the ladies, Ryan and I went driving around to see what houston looked like. It was very weird. I can't really find a better word for it. Houston is a place that both Ryan and I have spent a lot of time in and it was just very strange seeing the places, roads, restuarants you frequented so often under so much stress. Some of the roads were still flooded and trees were EVERYWHERE. Downtown Houston also had quite a bit of damage to the buildings. The JPMorgan Chase building was the most effected. Glass was everywhwere and almost every window on one side of the building was blown out. We got a video of the workermen busting out the rest of the glass. Creepy. Anyway, after we were done with downtown we went to one of our fave restaurants that had a major fire the night the hurricane hit. Brennan's was where we had our wedding reception in houston and we loved eating there, they have the best turtle soup! YUM! but, it now stands with the roof caved in and the windows busted out. :(  However, a family friend of ryan's said that they are already looking to repair and get back in to business! yay! After seeing all of that, ryan and I decided we should hurry up and eat and get on the road before the houston curfew came. So we grabbed a bite to eat on got on down the road. 

                                  ~out for lunch~

~brennans all gone~

~one of the trees, reaches all the way to their porch!~

~ouch~

~the chase building missing all it's windows~~construction worker breaking out the glass~

Today, thursday sept. 18th, shirley and jenny still don't have power and most of the school districts are also without power. I know the road to recovery will be a long one for not only houston but especially galveston. We are just glad that all of our friends and family made it through safely. God was definately watching over us. 

Hurricane Ike

Well, here comes ike in all it's glory. The good cities of Galveston and Houston are going to be blasted with it's first hurricane this season. The seawall is only 16feet tall and already this morning the waves are pounding right at the top of the seawall and Ike isn't supposed to hit until this evening. So, I am sure there will be some definate flooding because they are expecting 20 to 25 foot storm surges! YIKERS! This would be one of the few times I am glad we aren't living in Houston. However, we do have LOTS of family and friends that are there in Houston so please,~keep them in your prayers.~ Although they won't be seeing the 20 foot walls of waters, they will be seeing some SERIOUS wind (90mph for 12 hours) and LOTS of rain. Ike is gonna be one crazy storm and I can sympathize with all of those who are evacuating and sitting in that traffic with the other MILLION people trying to get to safer, higher ground (thanks dad for watching out for me.  :) ) But sitting in that traffic does suck! Ryan was actaully in Houston yesterday and on his way back home, the traffic leaving town was only moving at 20 mph. :( It took him 3 1/2 hours to travel 80  miles.  Hopefully they will soon put in to action the evacuation plan they came up with when rita and katrina came. Which is all lanes of traffic open up to leave town. That is kinda fun, driving down the wrong side of the highway, legally of course. Anyway, mr. ike is gonna be one big ole storm so hopefully everyone comes out ok. We will keep all of our family and friends in our prayers, we love you guys! 

:the stats of ike:

:as of 10:30 this morning:

category 2 hurricane 

he sits 198 miles from galveston bay

900 miles across (taking up the entire gulf)  :-0

winds are at 105 mph

winds are gusting up to 125mph

already producing 16 foot wave surges

expecting 20-25 ft. surges

will bring 90 mph winds for 10-12 hours

p.s. if you want to see more coverage of ike you should visit:

cnn.com (of course they have ALL kinds of footage)

ireport.com (this site shows everyday people's stories and footage of the storm.) 

oh, jessica

well, i was watching some music videos on CMT.com the other day looking for a friend that is in one and then started watching the Top 10 videos.....One of these being Jessica Simpson's "Come on Over" video. First if I may say, I love jessica. I think her "dumb blonde" act was ridiculous but you know she was laughing all the way to the bank with those millions of dollars. I'm thinking she isn't so dumb. Second, I do think she is beautiful and has her head on pretty straight. However, after watching/listening to this video I am not impressed. I really don't like the way she is SOO breathy and trying SOO hard to be SOO sexy and seductive. I am just like, "Lady, just sing the friggin words already!" The song = not so good. Her singing = not so good. The fact that this is considered "country" music = not so good. I mean just because you film your video in a barn, with hay everywhere and wear a pearl snap shirt doesn't make you country.

Oh, and did you know that Jessica Simpson is coming/came out with a new fragrance? It is called Fancy but it really isn't. It smells alright, but I wouldn't buy it. Partly because I am kind of tired of all of these celebrities who turn in to these overnight fashion, handbag, fragrance guru's. LAME. Anyway, the point of that little tidbit is that near the end of Jessica's video she lame-ingly gets a shot of her new fragrance. Nothing like prodcut placement....of your own product. I sat there saying. "Oh, Jess, you could have done better...." 

Just a small thought in my head. 

Goin' Home

Last weekend I had a long weekend off!!!! YAY! A long weekend meaning I had saturday, sunday AND monday (labor day) off. This rarely happens! Usually it is only 2 days in a row so I was uber excited that we could actually plan to go somewhere. So we planned to pay a visit to my parents in mesquite since I think the last time we were there was more than 4 months ago. YIKERS!! As we pulled up to the house we could smell the brisket my dad had cookin on his new smoker and it made my mouth water! I miss that good 'ole home cookin. After visiting for a little while at the house we decided to do a little shopping at Town East Mall. There have been quite a few changes but the most important is they added a forever 21, my most fave store! So we did a little damage there and of course had to check out the local Macy's and then headed back home to eat dinner with the parents and amber and christiaan. It was delicious! Good Job Dad!

After dinner my mom had mentioned that on the other side of Lake Ray Hubbard they have added a new shopping center type thing called The Harbour where there are fountains, restaurants, a movie theatre and a rocky mountain ice cream shop. YUM! So all of us headed out there to check it out. We stopped for ice cream of course and then just strolled along the place to see what was going on. There were a couple little kids out there with their bands trying to make a buck and preparing for the big stage someday, it was pretty entertaining.

After the harbour fun we decided to go out with amber and christiaan to the Gaylord out in Grapevine, I believe. That place is HUMONGOUS! Anyway, inside the Gaylord somewhere there is this club called the Glass Cactus. This place is also huge! It is two stories and has a large stage where the bands can set up comfortably. It was TONS of fun and the band was AMAZING! Oh, and they dress up like Space Heroes. Kinda fun adn quirky.

the band
amber and I with the band.

The band playing is called the Spacerockers and they are quite possibly the best cover band I have ever heard. Why, you might ask...because they sand every song from every genre. They did Pop, Rap, Classic Rock, 80's 90's todays music....seriously pure awesomness! You can check em out at spacerockers.com. They are crazy good!

Ryan and I on the trolly back to the parking lot.

Anyway, after that we headed back to amber and christiaan's house where we stayed the night. Sunday we got up and headed back to mesquite to go to church with my parents. Good old mequite ward hasn't changed too much from when we were all there. There are still all those "cute" crying babies. haha. But in all seriousness it really hasnt changed too much. Ryan and I wanted to go to church with my parents because my mom was giving a talk in which she did really well! Good JOB MOM! Hers was the best, not that it is a competition or anything but it was. :) After church Ryan and I had to get on back home to the pups we left in the house.

So, that was our Labor Day weekend and we loved it all! It was great to visit home and I was sad to leave so soon.

lick park

Ryan was researching some dog parks here in the area where we could take our dogs and just let 'em loose for a while. I sometimes prefer this to walking/running with them mainly because I usually don't feel like walking/running myself. :) So, he found a park a few minutes from the house called "lick creek park," sounds like the perfect fit doesn't it? Well, as we pull in to the parking lot we only see one other car, no dogs and no real "park." We get out of the car and start to wander around and find out that Lick Creek Park is really a closed off area with several different hiking trails. Now I know most of you live in Utah, Wyoming and Austin....where hiking is usually up a large hill/mountain but here in College Station it is about as flat as flat can get, so our hiking was really just a comfortable wander outside with the dogs. The park was a nice discovery for Ryan and I and the pups. Who knew we had such nice trails here in town! Here are some pics from the trail.
pups on the trail.
sawyer got a little tired and hot. we went at noon....oops!
a dung beetle with dung. haha.
pretty sunsetrandom shed or stable.another pic of the sunset.