Tabasco Kitty

So this is what happens when your husband feeds the dog Tabasco...

Good Friends and Fun Games!

Dinner is served! Yummy tacos!

Getting ready to play Apples to Apples.

The perfect Apples to Apples hand.
My "Steak and Potatoes" won that round!

Jesse contemplating his next move

The Girls: Mandie, Alison, Natty Light

The Guys: Jesse, Jerrod, Mike, Kirk

Happy Birthday Dad!

My wonderful dad celebrated his birthday today!

Happy, happy birthday!

I love you,

Al

Happy 36th Anniversary Mom & Dad!

Congratulations on 36 years of marriage!

You are setting a great example for Alison and I!

Love,

Mike

Happy Valentine's Day!

We celebrated our first married Valentine's Day this year with dinner at Cheesecake Factory (where we went on our first date) and had a wonderful time. Mike surprised me with these beautiful flowers when I got home from work and yummy Valentine peanut M&Ms! I was so impressed that he even managed to unearth this beautiful vase that we received as a wedding gift from the depths of our extra bedroom. For those of you who have unfortunately seen this room in our apartment you know that is no small feat!

What a beautiful rose!

My gift to Mike ended up having a little extra treat in the gift bag - someone else's credit card! After opening his chocolate goodies from Chocolate Secrets, he pulled the American Express card out of the bag...oh no! You know someone is frantically looking for that! A phone call to the store confirmed that they were indeed looking for it and we promised to return it as soon as we could. Unfortunately there was no chocolate reward for returning the card.

Pizza Night

Despite Mike's protests that homemade pizza isn't any good...on Friday night we stayed in and made our own pizzas. We each made our own pizza and although we learned that is way too much pizza for us, we had a lot of fun.

Mike's Pizza

Even Kitty got to enjoy pizza night!

Making the pizzas reminded me of my mom letting my childhood friend Cathy and I make our own pizzas during a sleepover many, many years ago. Remember that Mom?

And in the end Mike declared the pizza delicious!

America's Next Top Model?

Many weeks ago I agreed to be a model in the Junior League Fashion Show during the Community Volunteer Fair at NorthPark Mall. I have to admit that at the time it seemed like no big deal, but the closer the day came the more nervous I got. And the news that the runway would actually go around a fountain (filled with water!) didn't make me any more confident that I wouldn't end up as fashion road kill.

Finally the day of my fitting arrived and after having all my clothing selections deemed "BORING" by the show coordinator, I walked back into the Dillards dressing room to the words of "I have the perfect dress for you!" And into my arms was flung the tiniest turquoise blue strappy dress. It was one of those dresses that folds up on itself and looks like nothing on the hanger. I was left standing there wondering how I would ever fit into this itsy bitsy dress. Amazingly (thank goodness) there was more to the dress than it first appeared and it did actually fit.

After trying on no less than twenty outfits, I finally passed inspection with the fashion coordinators and it was on to deciding accessories and shoes. The guy in charge of telling me what kind of shoes to wear was everything that you would imagine a man in charge of shoes being! But, I could handle my first shoe assignment. Brown strappy sandals - check. He was horrified however to learn that I don't own gold stiletto sandals. After much whispering and consulting with the other fashion coordinators, it was agreed that he would select a new pair of gold shoes for me to wear in the fashion show. However, on the day of the show he actually deemed the pair of shoes I had brought as a back up acceptable and I was able to avoid teetering down the runaway in gold heels. Score one for Ally!

I had a wonderful cheering section during the show - my dear hubby, my sister and B-I-L, and my oldest Abilene friends Tiffany and Jenny (well, not the oldest, maybe the better word is longest - we've been friends since I was two!). It was so fun to see them in the front row from the catwalk. Thanks for cheering me on!

I'm sneaky

Al always gets up earlier than me (at least when her alarm clock is working) so she can be well into her morning beautification ritual by the time I need to get up. She normally comes in after taking her shower and gently nudges (sometimes it requires more than gentle nudges) me awake. She's way hotter than my alarm clock and usually more persuasive (although she can't sing anywhere near as good). Lately she will nudge me awake and then turn on the TV a little too loud to keep me from going back to sleep. We always watch Fox Good Day in the mornings for the weather and their random shenanigans. Well this morning I woke up while she was in the shower, grabbed the remote, stashed it under her pillow and went back to sleep. Sure enough when she came in to wake me up she didnt turn on the TV. Ahh, the silly things we do to get just a few minutes more sleep. I doubt this will actually work again...doh!

In the interest of full disclosure, what ultimately gets me out of bed most mornings is the overwelming urge to pee. I drink a lot of water at night before bed for this very reason. I call it "setting the alarm." Your results may vary.

89 the jack!

Mike: What are you going to order?

Alison: The California Roll up, but 89 the jack!

Mike: What??? (Laughing...) I think you mean 86 the jack?

Alison: Right...86 the jack!

Did you know "86" is a reference to article 86 of the New York state liquor code which defines the circumstances in which a bar patron could be refused service or thrown out – i.e. "86ed.” Eighty miles out and six feet under also refers to when a person who is to be killed by the mafia is forced to dig his own grave many miles away from civilization.

Learned something new today!

Oh the horror!

It had been a long day already when we walked in the door and caught a wiff of the funk. It was a lovely bouquet of old onions, puke, goat cheese, and bacon. Ok, so I didn't really pick up on all those scents, but combine all those together and your sniffer is right there in the mix. It was god-awful and we couldn't figure out where it was coming from. It smelled a bit like when your disposal gets funky in the sink, but yet that was not where it eminated from. Then I pinpointed it...Kitty's crate. In case you haven't met her, she is our slightly surly, festively plump black MinPin.

She actually runs the place, but allows us to live here. She's even got us tricked into paying rent. She spends the time while we are at work in her crate which she loves. Mostly she catches up on her reading, but sometimes she just stares off into space and dreams about the next morsel of food that will come tumbling off the countertop while Al is cooking. It's a rough life. But let's get back to the smell.

I opened the gate to Kitty's crate to find a scene of horror movie porportions. As I pulled a bit on her blanket it only got worse. Up against the back wall of her crate was the most poop I have ever seen outside of a barn yard. It was EVERYWHERE! At some point there was a blowout! Luckily, Kitty is smart enough to keep it away from her which I assume is how it ended up against the top of the back wall. Al and I both just stared in horror for a few minutes. Fortunately (or unfortunately) this was not my first rodeo so I knew what had to be done. Between gagging uncontrollably Al had the idea to pop the top on the cage to make it easier to remove the soiled articles. In light of all the gagging I asked Al if she was still interested in having kids to which she replied "not at this point, no!" I couldn't, however, get her to put it in writing. We debated (for about 2 seconds) about what to do with the blankets before throwing them in a trash bag and immediately taking them to the trash chute. There was NO WAY we were putting these things in the washing machine. Since I knew they were bound for the trash I used them to pick up the larger pieces and wipe what I could off the walls of the crate. This was not easy. Next came the task of removing the spackle-like poop which remained. While Al took Kitty out to make sure she was indeed empty, I took the cage out to hose and wipe it down. This, like the rest of the process, was a blast. Once I was finally finished I brought it back in the house for the Al treatment. She hosed it down with Lysol and then wiped it down again before putting it all back together.

From the looks of the two of us, you'd think we had seen someone get hit by a bus. We were both a little shellshocked to come home to this, but we got it cleaned up and the smell was starting to subside.

I think we can take a couple of lessons from this:

1) Al doesn't do poop well. Not that I do either, but she was useless in the task of turd abatement.

2) Never underestimate the amount of poop a MinPin can expell.

3) Never put anything (including, but not limited to, sheets, old towels, or old blankets) in a dog crate you wouldn't mind parting with.

Alison and Mike

The beginning...of our new blog and our new life together!

Married about three months, Mike and I are having fun settling into our life together AND learning to live together - which is an adventure in itself. I'm learning to share the closet and he's given up his always present pile o' laundry in the living room chair. We hope you'll enjoying reading about the trials and tribulations of our married life!