The newest member of the Andrew Family!

And no it is not a baby. But isn't this one cute?? Amanda, Steven, and Lincoln came to visit us for Thanksgiving and I just could not get enough of the little guy. Look at that smile!

Here's the real new member. We recently lost the scooter, and by lost I mean it was stolen out of our parking spot. That's why I am so grateful Peter wrote his own policy for it and we were covered. Rather than replace it with something else to get stolen, we got this baby:
A 1994 Mazda Miata. We came to a compromise that Peter could get this car as long as I get to drive it during the week and he can race it on the weekends. Isn't it cute?

Thanks to the 70 degree weather we had yesterday, we can still drive with the top down some.

October activities. And yes I realize it is December.

So I have sucked keeping our blog up to date, but I just got a new job so will blame it on that. And with that introduction, here is . . . The Halloween Armadillo!!!

Still not sure why he was in downtown. Also, the little girl randomly came up and took the picture with us, so no, she is not my illegitimate child.

Next up was the cutest thing ever, and Peter and I decided taking a picture from the back would be best rather than creep his mother out.
He was Nemo, and with every step he took, his little fins and tail wiggled. To die for!

Next is our adventure in caramel apple making, which was messy but delicious. Here is my attempt:
And Peter's:
And this is my "i am trying to be sweet but hurry up" face.
And one last look at Halloween, at our good friend the Tanner's house. I was Lady Gaga, and Peter was a bumblebee. The next night we went out to the club The Glass Cactus and they had Spinderella (a sweet DJ) there. It was awesome!

Updating of our apartment

Peter and I have the same stuff that we came to our marriage with 2 years ago, but in worse condition. They are wonderful pieces of furniture, mind you, they just needed some updates. :) Also, I think Peter and I have a phobia of clutter and stuff. So our walls were fairly empty, and that also needed to change.

Recently Grapevine had a citywide garage sale. At said sale, I got these awesome antique paintings of these birds. After some painting and windex, we got . . .

These! The pictures pp a lot more with the new paint and I am obsessed with them.

We bought some stain (meaning I did, the person who knows absolutely nothing about home improvement) and stained the bookshelf that was passed from mom (thanks mom!) to amanda to us. It looks pretty dang good if I do say so myself, although you can't really tell much from the picture.
We also redid the hutch that Uncle Mike gave us (thanks Uncle Mike!) and you can't tell from the picture either but it is a dark gray/dark brown. We spray painted the hinges and handles, and it looks great.
We are still thinking about staining our table, but I think that project will have to wait for when we have more time, because our table is massive!

I love Texas! or at least, the general area we live in. Not so much the dry parts . .

I decided to take some pictures of the beautifulness I see on my way to work. It has been brisk fall weather lately with rain pouring at least a few days a week. On the day I took these the clouds were looming, and we had an awesome lightning storm that night.

Here is the most Texas property/house I have yet seen, and I don't know if you can read the sign but it says "The Bear Creek Plantation." This property has beautiful trees down the walkway to a gigantic house (that if you look hard enough you can see between the gates) and loads of grass and some cows in-between. So awesome.

Next is some property nearby that is part of a huge acreage with a house and barn and these fantastic trees all over the property. It also looks like it has a little creek running through too. I told Peter that we need to have another reception because this is my dream location for one. I will save my pennies to buy it one day . . .
In this next picture you can barely see the water tower of Grapevine, which saves my life. Whenever I get lost around here, which is often, I just look around for the nearest water tower because I know that will tell me what city I am in. Also, look how green it is here!
This farm is one of my favorites because the cows sit by the fence and eat the flowers most of the day. They weren't there when I took the picture, but the field has such a dreamy quality.
And this is the stoplight Peter and I sit at for at least a few minutes a day. At it, we face train tracks and a huge open field which we saw a coyote in.
Hope you guys come visit soon!

Texas State Fair!

Peter and I as well as the Dutchers and some other friends from work all went to the Texas State Fair on Saturday. Biggest in the country, and also known as the Fried Food Capital. Unfortunately, the weather didn't match the event and it was kinda chilly, but still so fun.

As soon as we walked in, they had a Chevy test-driving station and since Peter forgot his wallet at home, I got to drive us around in their fun cars! I tried to gun it, but since the course was pretty small, I didn't really get anywhere. :)

Our first stop with the good old south was the animal section where we met the 1100 lb pig. Sick! The poor thing couldn't even stand up when it was eating, it just laid there stuffing it's face. Next to the fat pig was a feeding area with emus, a baby giraffe and zebra, lots of big and little goats, a kangaroo and some other weird animals. I guess the smell of gross animal pens made us hungry, so we stopped by to get some food and saw this sign:
Not only were there these fried foods, but there was also fried snickers, fried lattes, fried s'mores, cheesecake, and pretty much anything else you could want deep fried. Peter and I shared a corn dog (or corny dog, as they call them here) and that was about all the grease that I could handle. But it smelled so good everywhere!

After eating we hit up the auto show where a sweet old man started telling us about a car crash he got in when two corvettes were racing and the one in his lane didn't manage to get over in time. He said that he saw the corvette blow up and melt on the pavement. Another interesting thing about Texas, everybody talks to everybody and especially old people as they love to tell stories.

We raced to get over to the pig races in time and that was probably the highlight of the night. They had three rounds of races and I was so surprised how much Peter got into cheering for our little pig to win.

Also at the fair were the show animals (goats, horses, and cows) and they were the cleanest animals I had ever seen. Clean enough, I guess, for this guy to take a nap with them!
And I guess, clean enough to wear a hat?

But really they were just like puppies, and just wanted to be scratched.

14 to 13. Enough said.

Time to do some re-ranking!

Peter got a new toy! and other happenings of our lives

Check out that smile!

So technically, this is not a toy, more another form of transportation. But it is so fun! It is a KYMCO People S-200 (i think? if you want to know more about it ask him). We even drove it to church the other day and had awesome hair when we arrived.
As you can see from this picture, it is sweet blue color and has a nice spot in the back for yours truly to sit. (or i guess other people, but it looks pretty funny when he has his buddy's on the back)

In other news, Peter is doing great at work with the insurance stuff and got 110% of his goal last month. What a stud. All while I work my 12 hrs a week -- still looking for a job that is in my field.

Other new changes to our family include Cosmo having to go to the vet, where they told me he weighs 13.6 lbs! What a cow. We thought he had a urinary tract infection (something any girl can sympathize with) and I got to collect a urine sample, but for all that, he is fine.
I dyed my hair back to its "natural" color, meaning it is really dark but will probably fade, and as you can see by the pic, we are getting reading for the football game today. BYU is playing Oklahoma University and while they will probably get stomped, we will still go and support. It is the first game in the new cowboy stadium and it will be fun to root on our alma mater.

You may all go to hell, and I will go to Texas.

Or so says Davy Crockett.

Other amusing things from Texas so far:

There are hooters, twin peaks (same thing as hooters) and bone daddy's (worse than hooters) every block. And they are considered family friendly restaurants.

Evangelical christians make up approximately 1/3 of the radio stations here, and 1/6 of the TV stations.

Cattle drives still take place in the middle of the street. (okay, just downtown Fort Worth at the stockyards, which are pretty awesome.)

Ribs = amazing!!

Drivers seem fairly laid back and so it takes a while for people to go when the light turns green.

They sell key limes at the grocery store. Maybe since we share the gulf they are easy to get?

There are like, 5 million power companies here and you can pick and choose what you want.

Ed hardy is apparently the state sponsor of clothes. I have literally seen their stuff in just about every single store. Also, the girl in front of us in church (by girl i mean 12-14 year old) was doodling his name on a notepad during sacrament meeting. I guess i just don't get it.

The lower the lakes get, the more our water starts to taste like fish.

Grapevine Texas!

After a 20-ish hour trip down from Michigan (with the cat sitting in his litter box the entire time--it was clean :) ) Peter and I are finally here! With a temperature of somewhere in the 100s, we unpacked our entire apartment with the assistant of one of Peter's friends from home, a couple from the ward, and the local elders. And as you can see, Peter is enjoying taking it easy in our air-conditioned apartment.

Our trash days are Monday and Thursday, and we accidentally slept in past trash pick up. So thank goodness we have 2 bedrooms! And much to the dismay of the cat, they are gone as of this morning.

This is where he spends much of his time, under the bed, being a stink.

Here is our lovely dining room/nook, and I am a little nervous at the prospect of it being over carpet in that, according to Peter and the hospital records, if it is breakable or spillable I will be the one to do it.

Our kitchen! So wonderful, lots of cabinet space.
Drumroll please . . . . and a DISHWASHER!!! Hallelujah! I think we have been using extra dishes just because we know we don't have to wash them. Also in this corner are three of my other favorite things. 1) My kitchenaid. Enough said. 2) The greek owl tile from Peter's grandparents house. Trish told me that her mother always told her that it is considered lucky to have an owl in the kitchen, and there he will stay. 3) The garden gnome. He mostly lives here because Peter does not really want him anywhere else, but I adore him!
Here is our bathroom, pre-curtain rod. (They brought it today) And as hot as it is here, we don't get much cold water from the tap. But the shower is huge and so it is great.
Our beautiful bedroom, complete with new mattress. bed frame, and duvet cover. I love it! We got a memory foam and it really is like the most comfy thing in the world. Also some rad things in this room include a framed picture of Peter as a baby and his little teddy bear that his mom let me take with me. The picture is killer and he has the fattest cutest cheeks ever.
For the most part, that is our apartment. No big Texas bugs yet, or any other crazy things. I hope you guys can come visit! (we will even let you try out the memory foam)

Chicago is one of our favorite places

About two weekends ago we took a trip down to Chicago. Several tolls later in which we did not have cash (whoops) we landed in Carey, Illinois, which is where Peter's uncle Jared and his wife Matia live. (so Jared is really Peter's uncle's brother, but. . . same thing.) They were sweet enough to let us stay the weekend there with them and their so-cute two little girls. And their pet snake, who is currently receiving antibiotics via injection by Jared. Random, but kinda awesome to watch.

So Saturday morning we get up early to go catch the train into town, and once we get there we realize the station in closed. Thinking we could just buy tickets on the train, we hop on and wait for the ticket man to come around. Once he gets to us, I pull out my credit card and he says they only take cash. We do not have any cash (as evidenced by the toll booth situation) and the guy tells us we will have to get off, get cash, and wait for the next train (at least an hour). Thankfully, the amazing guy and his daughter behind us offered to pay our fare and we could reimburse them when we got off. So nice of him!

We got into town and hopped on the bus, and the first place we got to was Navy Pier. It smelled of delicious roasted nuts and lots of other fried foods. As you can tell, Peter decided to make a photo op without my knowledge:

Also located on Navy Pier is the National Public Radio station where they air and record "This American Life." We buzzed the intercom and tried to get in, but I guess they only do tours and visits during the week. I guess that means I will have to wait until my next trip to meet Ira Glass.
After that we hopped on a bus that took us to the Miracle mile to check out all the shops and fun fancy places. And what did we find?? Steve Urkel's car from Family Matters!!

So funny. The people in the store probably thought we were silly, but that is okay. Peter was sweet and let me go into all the shops and spend as much time as I wanted. When we got too pooped we stopped at the Ghiradelli store and ordered an amazing banana split. There were lots of really neat buildings, like the Wrigley building, and a lot of them were pretty historic. It makes me want to move to a huge city!

If you walk further down on Michigan Ave you run into the beach (lake beach is still a beach!) It was such a beautiful warm day that we took off our shoes and waded in the water for awhile. It was so funny to be in the midwest and see a beach.

Towards the end of the day we both were starving, so we stopped at Gino's East to get some real Chicago-style pizza. Everyone writes on the walls and benches there, so we were sure to make our mark as well. (It is the reddish pinkish writing on the right-hand side)

We took the train back that night and heard all of Jared's great stories from his medical rotations and all in all had a blast. I could definitely live in Chicago, should the right job take us there.

Pictures from Canada and Ben's wedding

Wonderful Peter figured out how to get the pictures off his camera for us without the cord so now I don't feel so dumb explaining our adventures. It helps to have something to show for our trips! So here are our pictures we took our first visit to Canada. This picture of me is looking at the Renaissance Center (GM's headquarters) from the other side of the Detroit River. There was a really pretty boardwalk area to walk up and down.

Here is Peter, being awesome. I think he is pointing to the "People Mover" which is the actual name of the elevated monorail that goes around downtown Detroit.

No idea why Canadians are dressed up as Scots, but I am sure if we were native we might have understood why. It was their Memorial Day when we visited so there were celebrations going on.

We took the tunnel on the way to Canada (it took like 3 minutes) and took the Ambassador Bridge on the way back.

While there isn't a whole lot to do for us kids in Windsor, the next weekend Jason and Emeri came to town for Ben's wedding so we decided they needed to go see Canada too. (Peter and Jason have been best buddies with Ben since high school) Don't they look good? We had so much fun with them that weekend, and we went all over downtown Detroit, including a special trip to Pizzapapalis in Greektown. We all had a slumber party complete with Cosmo waking everyone up, and then got ready for the wedding. Ben and his awesome now-wife, Kim, got married in the Detroit temple. We stayed for some pictures and went to a ring ceremony, and dinner reception. Peter and I are lonely again with them gone, but maybe they can visit us in Texas on their way out to VA! (hint hint, nudge nudge).

Okay, so Peter just explained to me that Texas is not technically "on the way" to Virginia but a girl can hope right?

Oh, Canada

Peter and I went to Canada this weekend! We got on the tunnel to go, and I think we will be there for about 20 minutes or so but before I even know we are under the Detroit River we are already on our way out.

Each agent at the stop grilled us about random things before letting us in or out, like where Peter was working and why we were coming to visit. After parking down by the river, we walked into a Memorial Day celebration for them and there were lots of army-looking men in kilts and sweet white boots. (As soon as we get the cord for our camera I will post the pictures, we both packed ours up for Texas). Why on earth they wear kilts in Canada, I will never know. We walked around for a while and then went to get some delicious Chinese for lunch, since we heard it was great there. (it was, and we gorged ourselves)

Some other good news--we got a mac! And as you can tell by the picture below, we have been having great fun with the photo booth option. 

The cat does not look as thrilled as I would think he would. Anyway, we have skype and iChat and now we can all see each other when we move far away. Another reason we got the mac is so Peter can use it to do great things with pictures and videos for his website:

scootergy.com

Here he is hard at work: 

The glare isn't great, but you can see Peter hard at work on the website! In the background is the "Company white board" that has all the things that he and his dad want to do with the site. 

We miss you all and love you! Can't wait to see you guys in Vegas soon!

Who knew the state of Michigan was like a wild animal park??

So far in the two weeks I have been here, it has felt somewhat like a zoo in that I am seeing animals that I have only seen in pictures in real life. I guess that happens when you grow up in the desert.

I have seen these three:

Unfortunately for me and them, they all seem to be "playing possum" on the side or middle of the road.
I have seen a few live animals though, like a snake, a chipmunk, and a big fat rat. The rat was huge and disgusting and I have never seen anything like it! Insects also do not seem to be in short supply here, and when Peter and I went on a bike ride yesterday a big fat bee ran right into my head. And these bees aren't normal sized, they are like the size of June bugs but with huge ol stingers.

Hopefully I will see more animals as the months go by, and less of them hanging out by the road.