The Good Guys Gang (GGG)

This weekend the boys did a great job of creating a Valentines Day weekend scavenger hunt for the girls. It all began when we went to Central Market for breakfast on Saturday. When we arrived, Jordan & Allison "happened" to be there too, soon followed by Brad & Jen and Noah & Jill. We made it just in time for breakfast and were able to visit as we eased into the morning. The boys had timed things a little early, so we all ended up strolling through Central Market and eating all the yummy samples of chocolate.When it was time to leave Central Market we were handed a stack of envelopes that were signed "The Good Guys Gang (GGG)"

Our first clue lead us to Embellish nail salon, where we were pampered with mimosa's, chick flicks, and manicures. The manicures were fully funded (tip included), and the girls ended up buying cute watches and necklaces as an added treat. After this, we were really excited to open the next envelope, but it only had an address. By the address, we could not figure out where we were headed next. The only stores at the intersection we were instructed to contained Half Price Books and Goodwill, and we couldn't fathom that after such wonderful manicures that we would go to either location. We were wrong... The boys led us straight to Goodwill, and we were instructed to pick out a tacky outfit that was under $20. We were told that we needed to wear these outfits to our next location, so we headed straight to the dresses because these could be pulled over what we already had on. Allison picked out a fabulous red and black dress that really took all of us back to our childhoods', and we all confessed that our moms sported similar attire in the 80s. She could hardly walk out of the dressing room with those shoulder pads... Jen picked out a fabulous multi-colored/sequined polyester dress (featured in the picture) with sleeves that would have allowed her to either take off in flight or give a Latin dancer a run for their money. We played fair and changed into our outfits in the parking lot, then proceeded to the next location. The next stop was Trudy's, and boy did we need this stop (despite being clothed in our fabulous attire). We walked in to Trudy's as if nothing was wrong and headed to the bar as instructed. We sat down and casually asked the bar tender if she had an envelope for us, and she looked at us like we were crazy. I mean, really, the way we were dressed did she think we would make this up? Just as our hearts sank, Jill spotted the boys in the upstairs bar where they were all laughing and pointing at us. We went upstairs and had Mexican martini's (still in our while still in our incredibly hot dresses) while Patrick held the remaining envelopes.

After the much needed drinks, we headed out of Trudy's and opened the next envelope, and little did we know that the next stop was in the same shopping center. Without knowing, Jen plugged the address in the GPS and were lead back through the neighborhood into the same shopping center. Only to arrive a Tabu, which is comparable to a Cindi's or a Fredricks of Hollywood. At this moment, the phrases "You've got to be kidding me..." or "They *would* send us in here with all the men the day before Valentines Day" started to erupt from the car. We were still in our ugly dresses and they were asking us to spend $30 to purchase something for ourselves while having our special member of the GGG in mind. Jen and I were angry, and mentioned that the boys would pay for this stop. Little did they know that they don't only carry things for the ladies, and I'll leave it at they both got what they deserved for this stop. Jill surprised all of us when she was checking out and broke out her frequent shopper card. Although we walked in angry (minus the dresses), we all walked out laughing from the experience. We were then lead to the last stop on our tour-de-Valentines which was back at the Watson's where the boys had wine and cheese waiting for us. Jen and I decided to tell Patrick and Brad that we had come in way under budget on our Tabu stop, and at this point both boys were (rightfully) concerned. We presented them with their gifts, and both wore them as eye patches as they proceeded to cook an excellent steak dinner paired with great wine. By the end of the dinner, Jordan had the guitar and was serenading the group with the song "Allison", and Jen ended up showing off her turn table skills. Needless to say it was a wonderful day filled with laughter and fun, and I can say that we are one incredibly lucky group of girls to have such wonderful husbands.

The adventures of Ranger continued....

Many of our family and friends have heard or experienced the adventures of little Ranger, and this weekend we had an experience that adds to the list. After of year of eating pillows, doggie doors, and office chairs where the incident was the fault of the 4 legged creature, we finally had an incident that was completely our fault....

This weekend Patrick's mom Ritsy was in town, so we decided to venture to the Round Rock outlet mall. The outlet mall has a discount pet store, and on this occasion the whole store was 50% off (yippee!). We spent 30 minutes picking out treats and new dog beds for our two dogs and Ritsy's dog, Gracie. We ventured home after the shopping excursion, but was in too much of a hurry to get to the next activity that we didn't immediately give the dogs any of the treats that we bought.

After returning from dinner and the American Voices concert, we went to let the dogs in, and I gave each of the dogs a Greenie. I had bought Greenies for Brinkley in the past, so didn't think much of giving the dogs this treat. Plus the dogs were going nuts over what was in the bag from the pet store. Each dog went to their respective corners or under the bed to enjoy their treat, and Gracie was the first to complete her treat, Brinkley came in a close second, and Ranger (being new to the Greenie) came in dead last. About 5 minutes later, we noticed that Gracie had developed what looked like lar spaghetti-o's all over her body, and we couldn't figure out what was going on. We called the Emergency Vet Clinic, and they told us that these we just hives and to give Gracie a Benadryl. We kept an eye on Gracie, and about 10 minutes later Patrick walked over to Ranger who was hiding under the couch pillow. Patrick noticed that Ranger was developing large bumps around his eyes, and as we kept watching poor Ranger's whole face swell. We gave him a Benadryl, and he didn't even want to be around us (which was out of the norm for him). We felt so bad and stayed up to 2AM with him making sure his breathing wasn't constrained, and thankfully it wasn't. Sunday morning was better, but he's still not back to normal. Here's a couple of shots with how bad his little face looked:

Regular Ranger:

First noticed:

Final Look:

Dancing the night away....

This weekend we had a great time with our friends at Heather and John's wedding, and I just happened to snap video of Jordan and Michael's dance moves. We knew Michael had moves, but had no idea what Jordan had in store for the group:

In another section of the dance floor, David got his hands on a napkin and became Lady GaGa at the end of the evening:

The ladies stood on the sidelines while the boys stole the show, but we managed to get a couple of cute shots:

4 dog night...

This weekend we dog sat Ella and Lexi, and the four dogs had a great time. There were multiple stuffed animals that were held hostage by the dogs and some weren't so lucky. As you can see the duck has seen better days. Saturday night we left the house to go to the TAMU versus Texas women's basketball game, and within being at the game 10 minutes our neighbor called us to tell us the dogs had dug a hole under the fence, and Ranger was running around on the side of the house. Luckily, she was able to push Ranger back through the hole and patch it with a fire log. We decided that it was best to head back to the house to see what the damage was, and we found the hole was largest enough that 3 of the 4 dogs could have squeezed through it and were lucky that only Ranger escaped.

We are sure that the other 3 dogs sent him on a recon mission to see if the coast was clear, and he was caught. We tried to figure out who was the big culprit of digging and found some evidence on Ella's belly. Her belly was covered in mud. I'm not saying she's 100% at fault, but I think she was a large contributor. Judge for yourself... All three other dogs did have mud in between their toes, but Ella was by far the dirtiest from the incident. The dogs had a great time playing together, fighting over toys, and wrestling all over the couches. We were warned that Ella is obsessed with food, and we caught he in the act of steeling food off of the night stand:

Probably one of the funniest things of the weekend that we learned was Lexi's obsession with balls and Ella's lack of coordination and timing. Observe as Lexi tries to catch a second ball with a tennis ball lodged in her mouth, and Ella's missed timing when trying to catch the ball.

The dogs completed their stay with a final game of tug a war and the kong lost the battle.

Being an Aggie in a sea of Burnt Orange

For all those who don't get to experience what it's like to live in Austin, when the Longhorns are playing in the National Championship. Here's the front page of our ABC affiliate's home page:

There's no escape from the sea of orange.... Roll Tide!!!!

Farewell 2009

As we embarked on our first year of marriage, I don't think anything could have prepared either of us for 2009. This year was filled with happiness, sadness, exasperation, relief, joy, and exhaustion. We learned a lot about each other and how blessed we truly are, and just to share what 2009 brought to the Kainers. Here's a recap:

In January, we got another puppy, Ranger. Ranger has taught us patience and that we are not ready for children. Here's a shot of Ranger just after a day at the lake:

February through April, we were busy with the new puppy, and I was finishing up my MBA at St. Edwards. At the beginning of May, I finally graduated from my MBA after 3 years filled with lots of coffee, group projects, and late nights.

After a trip to LA with my good friend Lyra to visit our friend Charis and her family, I returned to Austin and found out a week later that Patrick had lost his job. This job was one that had him traveling at least one day every week in the peak of its business, which was manageable when I was in school. The news was devastating, but I knew that we would rebound just fine. We had a lot planned for the summer, so Patrick took on the duties as a stay at home dog dad paired with my honey-do list. Needless to say that kept him very busy.

In June, we made the trip to Cape Cod, with a side trip to Boston, to see one of my good friends from high school & college get married. One of my best friends that I have known since junior high also joined us out there because her husband was a groomsman. Because of the beautiful backdrop, both couples attempted to take our Christmas card pictures on the beach, but due to a wardrobe malfunction on my part this was the best picture from the beach (too bad we couldn't this one of the four of us):

Early in July my cousin Brylan came to spend half the week with us. This was her first trip on her own to Texas, so as you can imagine we kept her very busy. We did everything from South Congress to the bats on the Congress bridge to a trip down to San Antonio to the Alamo and Natural Bridge caverns. Brylan has the same crazy hair that I do, so I did what any good cousin would do, and sent her home with flat-ironed hair. Yes folks, she's only 12, but looks so old in this final picture:In July my grandfather Paw Paw's health started to decline, and we knew that our time was limited with him. I was very close to him and had spent every summer with him and my grandmother Cille, growing up. There were so many great memories from those summers from learning to drive at 13 while my grandmother was taking her nap to daily trips to the drug store for real Cokes made at the soda fountain. Patrick and I decided that it was time to go be with him in Louisiana, so we packed up everything and headed to Alexandria. As we pulled into the assisted living home he was in, Patrick got a call that he had gotten a job! What a blessing in such a tough time! We arrived to the assisted living home at noon, and we lost Paw Paw at 4PM. Though this was so tough, he lived 94 wonderful years and had the opportunity to impact so many of us. As a positive, Patrick got to experience more of my family heritage as we went to my dad's home town for the funeral and buried my grandfather in southern Arkansas. Here's a picture of him while he was in the S. Pacific during WWII: In August Patrick started his new job, and we decided that it was time to put Ranger in puppy school. Ranger successfully graduated, but that has not stopped his destructive habits. The end of August brought the beginning of football season and the beginning of September brought me a new job at Dell and Patrick an appendectomy. One evening after returning home from work Patrick mentioned that he was having some pains in his upper stomach. Because this had been a recurring issue, I asked that we finish dinner and head to the ER. I knew there was a problem when Patrick didn't eat a bite of his dinner. We headed to the ER at 8PM and at 2AM he was admitted to the hospital. He didn't have emergency surgery, but did have his appendix removed the following afternoon. After just starting his new job, we had no idea what this would entail for us. Patrick was lucky in that his recovery time was much shorter than we expected. Since the surgery, he hasn't had any further stomach pains and are hopeful that this is what had caused all of his previous issues.

October continued to keep us busy with football season, and at the end of October we learned that I would be traveling to Ireland for the majority of November. So we started to prepare for this trip, making sure that we had as much stuff completed before I left. My time in Ireland was a great professional experience, and on the weekend I was able to go see some of the Irish countryside. My good friend Ger invited me to spend a weekend with her in Dublin, and I couldn't have gotten a more in depth tour of the city. We managed to sneak in high tea and had a wonderful time.While I was in Ireland, Patrick managed to stay busy with a trip to Wurstfest and a trip to Houston to see our niece's dance competition. We spent Thanksgiving in College Station for the football game and started to prepare for December.

In December we celebrated our first anniversary in Fredricksburg at the Hoffman Haus, and we were able to visit a couple of wineries on our way into town. We discovered our new favorite winery, Grape Creek vineyards, along our journey and hope to have the opportunity to visit again soon. That Monday, we were able to go to the dedication of the new museum of the Pacific War in Fredrickburg, where my grandfather's submarine mass is displayed in the front lawn. What a wonderful experience to spend time with veterans of WWII. The next weekend we had a mini-staycation in Austin where we stayed at a hotel in town and had a wonderful dinner with friends at Eddie-V's. The next weekend we embarked on our Christmas travels, and we received a new camcorder for Christmas. Below is my first video of the snow and our Christmas preparations in Dallas.

Because of the snow, our trip to Houston was slightly delayed, but we were able to make it in time for the festivities. While I was in Ireland I bought Sean a Munster Rugby jersey and all the girls Irish dancer dolls. As you can tell from the photos they all enjoyed their new toys.

We had a great trip to Houston and had the opportunity to have a long visit with Kimmi (Patrick's sister) and husband Chris who live in Phoenix, along with the Bivens and the Kainers. Despite being busy, we made the time this year to relax and enjoy the holidays.

As we rang in the new year with good friends, the Kainers are looking forward to a less-eventful 2010.

Things you won't hear in the U.S....

Having conversations with many different people over here from taxi drivers to co-workers, I've run into the following phrases/things that you won't hear or see in the U.S. (some have taken me a little off guard):

• Having some cracks. (I think it's actually spelled craigh, but with the Irish accent it's hard to tell)= translation- having a couple of laughs. You have no idea what was running through my head when I heard this one....
• Drinking Budweiser or Miller Light on ice - really... it's cold over here and these folks put beer on ice.
• The ladies get really dressed up to go to the pubs (and there really is at a minimum one pub per block). Short dresses, no tights, heels.... Again... crazy it's too cold for that
• The art of pouring a Guinness. The bar tender poured the beer, and like any good American my co-worker grabbed it instantly. However we learned that you must let Guinness settle, then tip it backwards and top it off. (my co-worker almost had his hand slapped by the bar tender for this behavior)
• The use of "Ye" in conversation- yes it's used in everyday conversation. "I'll be sure to get back to 'ye' in the morn"

I'm half way through my time here, so I'm sure I'll have more to add to the list by the end of the trip.