A Christmas road trip with Oliver and my best bud Dramamine

This holiday season Oliver and I made the 9 hour road trip down to South Texas to spend Christmas with my family. You may be wondering why I don't just fly home for Christmas instead of subjecting myself to 9 hours in the car and it really all just comes down to baggage. When I go home for Christmas I have a lot of presents to take home and a lot to bring back with me and I don't know if you have seen how much it costs to check bags at the airport nowadays but I am not prepared to have to stuff all my belongings into a suitcase and then pay $20 for my first checked bag and then who knows how much for my second one. So I drive.

This years trip was made even more fun because I had Ollie in the passenger seat as my co-pilot. Only problem with this is that Ollie gets car sick. Jon, Shellie and Ann have all seen Ollie's projectile vomit skills while on a road trip. Let me tell you, there is nothing worse than being trapped in a car with a dog that is barfing and refuses to even try and get it into the bag you are shoving in his face.

Anyway, I figured since Ollie was a year old now maybe he had outgrown his car troubles and could make it the whole way without being sick. Not the case. An hour and a half into the trip Ollie lost his breakfast so we had to pull over and clean up. An hour and a half after the first incident he got sick again and we had to pull over for another clean up session. And a couple hours after that again. At least the third time he got sick he didn't really have much left in his stomach so clean up was a breeze and I had planned ahead and carefully positioned him so that each time he got sick he didn't get anything dirty in my car. Hallelujah!

We finally made it all the way home and had a nice relaxing Christmas with all my family (we were missing Danny and Ender though since they stayed in Dallas).

When it was time to pack up on Saturday morning to make the drive back to Dallas I could not handle the thought of having to deal with a barfing dog again so I did what I had to do. I gave Ollie some Dramamine (this was recommended by our veterinarian). This worked like a charm! Oliver slept the entire 9 hours home!!! He would occasionally wake up to switch sleeping positions but that was it! It was amazing! It was a much more enjoyable ride for both of us and I will never again go on a road trip with that guy without my new best bud Dramamine!

Happy Holidays!!!

Happy Holidays!



Love,



Ollie, Ender, Danny and Mitzi

Oliver's First Birthday!

One year ago today this little guy entered the world.

Two months later Danny and I drove to Oklahoma to bring him home.

Oliver has turned out to be the greatest dog ever and puts a smile on our faces every day!

We love you birthday dog!

Sew Fun!

A few weeks ago Kiki and I decided that it was finally time to actually have a hobby and get good at it! Recently we both got sewing machines and have just been tinkering around with them but this Tuesday we took our first sewing class and CityCraft!

It was a beginner class where we learned how to make a mini apron and got to drink wine at the same time. What more could we ask for?

Both Kiki and I forgot to take our cameras to the class so I had to snap this picture of the finished project when I got home.

I think our aprons turned out pretty great! Next up is a pajama pant class and a dog collar and leash class. Kiki and I will definitely be attending the collar and leash class to make Shiloh and Ollie some new gear!

Here is a pic of Ollie in case anyone was having withdrawals.

Whirlwind Weekend

This past weekend was amazing!!! I got to see all my favorite people in the entire world (minus my bro, dad and granddaddy), got to have an all weekend slumber party with Ash, Alexis and Erica, got tons of great gifts at the beautiful wedding shower and went to look at houses (one of which we bought!)

The festivities began Friday morning when I picked up my mom and grandma at the airport. I went to drop them off at my house and then rushed to work for the rest of the day. About 20 minutes after I got home that afternoon Ash and Danny arrived from Houston. They headed over to Shellie's to drop of stuff for the shower and my mom and I went to the grocery store to stock up on food for all the guests I was going to have that weekend and to pick up some dinner for everyone. We had our yummy Pei Wei and then hung out to wait for Alexis and Erica to call to be picked up from the airport. Turns out both of their flights got delayed but Alexis somehow managed to get on a flight from Harlingen to San Antonio which put her on the same flight as Erica to Dallas. Yay! Ash and I headed over to pick them up around 10:30 Friday night and came home for a slumber party just like old times! We talked and laughed and stayed up way too late.

The next morning Danny and I had to go to a work meeting for the entire day so everyone was left to fend for themselves. We got home and got everyone rounded up and headed to the Shower.

The girls did an amazing job! Shellie and Jon's backyard looked great, the food was delicious and they had so many special details spread around. Here are some pictures from that night (sorry I stole some pics from your blog Ash!).

Thanks for such a wonderful shower! You guys worked so hard and I couldn't ask for better friends! I love you guys mucho!

Sunday started out with my mom making my favorite breakfast ever. French toast and bacon. Yum! We also woke up to see that the White Rock Marathon was going right in front of my house! My crazy neighbors were out in lawn chairs with glasses of wine in hand by 9am to catch all the marathoners run by. We took Erica to the airport and then went to look at 6 houses. We had a crew with us since my mom, grandma and Alexis were all still with us. After the house hunt we took Alexis to the airport (if you are keeping count that is the third time I went to the airport in 2 days) and then went to Big Shucks for a late lunch. Then it was finally time to go home and rest a while before we had to get ready to go see A Christmas Carol which was great!

Whew! This week is going to be jam packed with even more fun! More to come on that later!

"We"lationship's and Stuff

So, long time no blog. Not much has been going on around these parts lately. Well, a lot has been going on just not anything super exciting. I have finally had a couple weekends in a row where I didn't have to go out out town for the first time in about 5 months so I have been taking care of all the little things that have gotten pushed to the side.

Anyway, this weekend Danny and I had to attend an Engaged Encounter retreat. It is one of the things we have to do as part of our marriage preparation process. I honestly thought it would be a lot more interesting and helpful than it was. We had to write like 8 love letters to each other over the course of the weekend. That was way more than Danny and I can handle so we skipped out on writing the last few and just talked to each other instead. The funniest part of the whole weekend was when Danny wrote me a letter (by letter I mean 2 sentence paragraph) where he wrote something about us being in a "We"relationship. We thought it was super funny but that is probably just because we had been locked in a room talking about our feelings for 8 hours.

On another note, this weekend I get to see all of my best friends in the whole wide world!!!! All of the Dallas bridesmaids and Ash (the lone Houston bridesmaid) are throwing Danny and I a wedding shower over at Jon and Shellie's house and my besties from back home, Alexis and Erica, are even coming into town for it! All of my faves in one place! My mom and grandma are also flying up and Danny and I are taking them and his parents to see A Christmas Carol (the play not the movie) on Sunday night. Danny and I went to see this production last year and it was so good so I am excited to see it again. Hopefully it will put us all in the Christmas spirit!

Stay tuned for the cutest Christmas card you have ever seen!

Tonight is the night!

Tonight Kiki and I are going to see New Moon and I CAN'T WAIT!

Yummy eye candy

Lately I have been contemplating one of life's biggest mysteries; do I think Jacob or Edward is hotter and which would I date if I could. That is a really tough call. I like Jacob's tan skin and he is def way more attractive than he was in Twilight (thank goodness he got rid of that long hair)but I don't know how I feel about werewolves. Ender and I shed enough as it is so I don't think I am up for the challenge of a werewolf. My roomba would not be happy with me. Edward on the other hand is the hottest vampire I have ever seen and he seems so sensitive yet manly at the same time. Great combo. And he can play the piano. Maybe he could finally teach me to play that keyboard I bought in a moment of weakness two years ago when I thought I wanted to become a piano player.

Hopefully the movie will help me make my decision, you know, in case I ever end up in the made up town of Forks, Washington and am forced to make a choice between the two.

Engagement Picture Sneak Peak

This weekend Danny and I made a little road trip to go see my best friend and maid of honor A. She just so happens to be an amateur photographer and she agreed to take our engagement pictures for us. She was a little nervous beforehand but I knew that the pictures would turn out great! So, she and her boyfriend (and amazing assistant) and Danny and I spent the entire day Saturday having our engagement photo shoot. I could not be more excited about how well the pictures turned out!!!! They all look so amazing. A did such a great job and we had such a fun day. I am so impressed at the quality of the pictures A and D were able to get of us. I don’t think even a professional photographer would have been able to do any better! It was the icing on the cake that I got to spend the whole day and weekend with A and see her in action! Here are just a few of the hundreds of pictures we took on Saturday. None of these pictures have even been edited yet and they look pretty much perfect. A really is so talented!

A and D, thanks so much for working so hard on our pictures and spending your whole day with Danny and I! You guys did an amazing job and we couldn't be more pleased! Love you guys!

You can check some more of her stuff out at http://ashley-dashphotography.blogspot.com/

Normal Social Behavior

So, sometimes I wounder if I have a look about me that makes people think I like to talk to random strangers (which I hate by the way). I am at work. I was just in the copy room making bagoodles of copies for the rest of my team who are out in Arizona right now. A guy I have never seen before walks into the copy room and we have the following conversation:

Guy: Fee Fi Fo Fum you are still on the copier!

Me: Yeah this is my last one.

Guy: You having fun?

Me: Uhhh, yeah. (Seriously dude, how fun can making copies be?)

Guy: What if someone just walked in here and sliced their finger off on this (referring to the big paper cutting contraption in the room)?

Me: .....(I had no clue what to say so I just stared at the copy machine)

Guy: When I was in jr. high some guy wanted to see if the stapler would staple through his finger so he put it under the stapler and pushed it down and it did!!!

Me: I am all finished here.

This guy was seriously messing with the boundaries of acceptable social behavior.

Mark Your Calendars!

This weekend Danny and I flew down to Brownsville to meet with the Priest who is going to marrying us. We have known for a long time that the wedding would be on June 12, 2010 but we had to meet with the Priest in person in order for him to actually write the date down in the church's calendar. Everything went well so June 12th is ours! Mark your calendars! I was starting to have mild panic attacks since we had everything else booked for that day but didn't officially have the church.

After our meeting with the Priest, we headed out to the Island with my mom to see the place we are going to have the reception. I was starting to have panic attacks about that also since I had never seen it in person but I think it will end up being a great place to have the wedding! We also looked at a couple of places to have the rehearsal dinner and hotels to get room blocks at. All in all I think it was a pretty productive weekend.

I think Danny had his fill of Mexican food over the weekend. I didn't realize this but I guess most of the stuff we eat down there is Mexican food but I just consider it normal food since that is what I grew up eating. Danny may not eat fajitas, tortillas or tacos for the next month!

The best part of the trip (other than getting to see my parents) was getting to see our dog Charlie!!! I rescued him right before my senior year in high school and he is just the best dog ever! I put him in his Halloween costume (which he hated) and he looked adorable. Kinda like a little furry Harry Potter!

Ender and Ollie spent the weekend with Danny's parents and were completely worn out when Danny and I got them back to my house. This is what they did all of Sunday evening:

Hope everyone has a great Halloween weekend!

Pumpkin Carving

Last night we had the 3rd Annual Pumpkin Carving Competition at my house!

We had Halloween treats like pumpkin roll, pumpkin empanadas, pumpkin muffins with whipped cream topping, mummy dogs, pumpkin ale and spiked apple cider. All soooo yummy!

The dogs ran around in their Halloween outfits while the rest of us carved our pumpkins.

Ender was a grey squirrel and pretty much hated life. He was too embarrassed here to even look at the camera!

Oliver was the cutest turtle I have ever seen. I don't think he even realized he had a costume on most of the time. That dog just loves life! He also loves this little lady.

Here is Ollie with his girlfriend Shiloh in her Halloween dress complete with matching bow.

This year we had some great first time competitors which included Eric and Lindsey, Jen, and Bear and Mallory.

The Freeds and Jen decided to go collegiate with their pumpkins.

I realize that this is a totally horrible picture, but here are the rest of the pumpkins from the night.

My pumpkin is the one on the far left and is a scary scarecrow. I won the award for "Scariest Pumpkin".

Jens UT Longhorn is next in line. She was awarded "Most Spirited"

Lindsay P. got "Most Improved" since last year she just cut a giant hole in her pumpkin. She definitely redeemed herself with this cute little monster.

Kiki is up next with her Piglet pumpkin. I am not sure what award she got for her pumpkin, but her pumpkin muffins she brought over were to die for and the favorite treat of the night. Therefore, I give her the "Best Baker" award.

Danny made the mummy face pumpkin which you can't really see in the picture, but he got the award for "Most Intricate Pumpkin".

And last but not least we have Bear and Mallory's Winne the Pooh pumpkin. They were declared the winners of the entire competition even though they took about 2 hours to finish it. It was pretty perfect though. I think Bear could make a career out of this. Last year he had to step in and MacGyver Lindsay's pumpkin with toothpicks after she cut out that giant hole and this year he carved the perfect Pooh.

After everyone left I put my pumpkin and Danny's pumpkin out on my front porch for the world to enjoy.

I am pretty sure these things will be rotten in the next two days or eaten by a wild animal but they were too pretty not to display!

Happy Fall!

Danny's Birthday!

Today this guy turns 26 years old!

Can you believe that? I can't, especially when he takes self portraits of himself like this. I can't remember where we were going after he took this picture, but I know he asked me if he could leave the house like that. Uh no, I don't think so.

In a few days we will also celebrate our 2 year anniversary, I can't believe that either.

Danny is my favorite person to be around hands down and he makes me laugh more than anyone I have ever met.

This year we aren't having a big birthday bash like we normally do. We had plans last weekend and we have plans next weekend so we are just going to do a nice dinner at one of our favorite restaurants tonight.

Danny,

Hope you have a wonderdul day! You are the best thing that could have happened to us! We hope all your birthday wishes come true!

Love You,

Mitzi, Ender and Ollie

Weekend Rundown!

This weekend was the much anticipated A&M/Arkansas football game at Cowboy Stadium. We have been planning for months to have a party at the Stanley's since Shellie and all of us went to A&M and Jon went to Arkansas.

So, this weekend family and friends from all over came over to take part in the not so friendly rivalry at the Stanley house! We had some seriously amazing food that day and some fun times with great friends. The Aggies of course disappointed us and lost. I don't even know what the final score was, but it was bad.

Sunday morning we were woken up by some super loud and bright explosions at 6:45. It turns out that the transformer (not sure if that is right) behind our house had exploded and set the telephone pole that it was connected to on fire. We happened to be looking out the back door the third time it happened and it temporarily blinded Ash and she then ran into the wall. I was ready to hop in the car and get outta there but we remained calm and called the fire department instead. Anyway, we ended up not having electricity until about 9pm that night. On the bright side, I took a 3 hour nap to pass the time, it was AMAZING!

On Monday (I know Monday isn't part of the weekend, but whatever), we went to the season opener for the Mavs. Danny and I won the tickets at a cancer fundraiser for our friend Fun Bobby since she is on a team that does the Lance Armstrong bike race. We bid $20 dollars on 4 tickets in the silent auction and actually ended up getting them! It turns out the tickets were worth over $500, what a steal! Fun Bobby and Kiki came with us and the seats ended up being really great! I am sure Danny wished there would have been another boy there since we basically chatted the whole time and then found the hottest players and cheered for them when we were actually watching the game, but he is always such a good sport!

All in all it was a good weekend/Monday minus the day I had to live in the dark.

Oh and today I start level 2 of the Thirty Day Shred, wish me luck!

Ollie's New Do

Last night I took Oliver to the groomer for only the second time in his little life. After the first time, Danny and I decided that we could do just as good of a job as the groomer could for a fraction of the price so we got some dog clippers and have been doing Ollie's hair ever since. We were right about doing it for a fraction of the price, but Ollie has gotten some pretty bad haircuts from the two of us the past few months. Anyway, Ollie's nails were getting long and his face was getting scruffy so I decided it was time to go back to the groomer so he could get the royal treatment that he deserves.

Here is Ollie in the car on the way to the groomer

And here is the handsome boy afterwards

Check out those perfectly manicured paws!

That bandanna stayed around his neck for about 5 minutes after we got home before he chewed it off. It has now become a toy that he drags around the house.

I hope he stays looking like this until his Aunt Ashley comes to visit this weekend but I am sure he will only look and smell good for about 2 more days before he decides to go roll around in dirt.

On a side note, we may have a Tubbs junior on our hands. Havanese are supposed to max out at 13 pounds and Ollie weighed in at an impressive 16.6 pounds at his vet appointment on Saturday!

How to Make Fortune Cookies

We had our monthly girls dinner last night over at Jen's house. The theme this time was Asian food. I decided I would bring homemade fortune cookies. This sounds hard, but is actually really easy and they taste so yummy! Everyone loved the fortune cookies (there were seven of us and we ate about 30 fortune cookies) so I figured I would put together a quick how to.

Step 1:
Kick the dogs out of the kitchen.

Step 2:

Find an assistant (you would think it would help that he is part Asian, but we still ruined the first 3 batches)

Step 3:

Assemble all your ingredients -
3 egg whites
3/4 cup white sugar
1/2 cup butter, melted and cooled
1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon almond extract
1 cup all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons water

Step 4:

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Grease cookie sheets with Pam.

Step 5:

Make up silly fortunes and cut them into strips.

Step 6:
In a large glass or metal bowl, whip egg whites and sugar on high speed of an electric mixer until frothy, about 2 minutes. Reduce speed to low, and stir in melted butter, vanilla, almond extract, water and flour one at a time, mixing well after each. Consistency should resemble pancake batter. Spoon the batter into 3 inch circles on the prepared baking sheets.


Step 7:
Bake for 5 to 7 minutes in the preheated oven, or until the edges begin to brown slightly. Quickly remove one at a time, place a message in the center, and fold in half. Fold the ends of the half together into a horse shoe shape. If they spring open, place them in a muffin tin to cool until set.

Step 8:
Pause for a trick

Step 9:
Eat your yummy cookies!!!!