Happy Birthday Lynne!

Happy Birthday to my super cute step-mom Lynne! She just turned 1, obviously. We're so glad you were born, I don't know what my daddio would do without you. You're the best step-momma ever! My dad once again (the symmetry between that post and this post is uncanny), baked a cake. He skills are becoming unmatched these days. I lucked out, it was my favorite kind, yellow with chocolate icing. Bonus!

We ate at the Tea Room in New Braunfels, it's a super cute little place in an old house (like everything in Gruene) decorated with all kinds of tea pots and tea cups. And a random deer head my dad's friend donated to the decor? My dad knows everyone. We used to go there all the time for birthdays and such when I was younger, it was fun to go back! We had a good time talking and laughing and catching up. Life has been so nutzo lately I haven't gotten to see my family nearly as much as I'd like. It was good to see these folks. Family time is good time.

I jumped at the chance of seeing the world outside of work and dressed a little fancy.

This is what you look like when you're sick and trying real hard to pretend you're not. You can't really see what that dress looks like at all and I've never blogged about it, but I made it (surprise) and it's probably my favorite and most worn thing I've made so far. It's just a plain fitted navy dress made of some sort of stretch cotton-poly fabric, it probably cost like $8 to make. And that extra cute scarf was a thrift store find, 99 cents, y'all!

Always the ham. Brendon has to dress up a lot for school (professional schools, y'all, they're fancy!) so he dresses better than me 90% of the week. What kind of bs is that?

We also got to see my siblings! Jules and my stepbro Jason. Sorry for the creeper shot Jason, I blame it on Brendon's excellent photography. See that random deer head? 

And our gift to Lynne, the best gift of the night (ahem) next to the fishing reel that fell apart from my dad, a board game called Donkey Racing (or the "Ass Game" as my dad named it). The back says something about having fun while learning the "antics of the donkeys". It looks riveting. We're playing it on Christmas.

And keeping with tradition, here's the weird ass photo of the bunch:

Creeper much? I'm embarrassed that I was actually sitting like that in real life. You can see the crazy in my eyes, that's fosho! After Brendon took the picture, he said aloud at the table, "ooo, that's sensual". Sheesh. At least my hair looks good.

Days off

Today, I do not have to work! And today, I have practically zero plans! This has not happened in.... a month? Since before I went to Dallas? Who knows. My days off usually consist of running around like a chicken with it's head cut off, trying to catch up on life. But today, I have oodles of time to do whatever I want. And I have tomorrow off too! With not a plan, errand, or must-do in sight (well, one birthday dinner with family). I am excited. BUT, of course as things always seem to work out for me, I am sick. Some sort of cold+allergy combination of death that has been plaguing me for the past month. When I got home from Dallas I brought with me with a fever and a sore throat. And I still cannot seem to shake it, which probably has something to do with the fact that I am constantly going and going and going nonstop on a small amount of sleep. Life's busy y'all. I can't decide if it's a cold or allergies whooping my butt, but the fever part is really annoying.

So after crashing last night at 8pm and waking up today at 6:30am (coffee shop habits, y'all), I have been chillin' extra hard on my couch. Aaaand possibly watching the Twilight series in preparation for Breaking Dawn Part 2... Hate all you want, I know it's terrible.

I also recently acquired this bad boy:

You know what that means. HELLA FOOD BLOGGING. The culinary genius behind the blog Smitten Kitchen, Deb, has just come out with her first cook book filled with all kinds of amazing recipes with mouthwatering pictures. The desserts alone you guys. Seriously. Deb is coming to Austin to talk about her badass book this month and my friend Tyler and I are going to see her! SO STOKED! I'm pretty sure she and I will be bff's at first sight. And then I can hang in New York City with her in her little kitchen (little kitchen cooks unite!) and we will bake and laugh and eat wonderful things. Creepy blog crush much? Whatever. So today in my lovely free time today I do believe I'll bust out this book and bake me some yummyness. Because the best cure for sickness is dessert. I'm sure I read that somewhere. It's science.

Oh and this is too good not to share:

My new favorite shirt. Yes, that is t-rex, real upset 'cause he stubbed his toe. So good. The Chisty's always come with gifts (they spoil us rotten), and this weekend Brendon and I were showered with adorable and clever t-shirts from Sarah. She worked at Woot, where they have all kinds of deals online (UH, check out today's deal! In the market for a camera??) and where they make all kinds of awesomeness in t-shirt form. The best part is the descriptions of the products. Worth checking out for the laughs alone. So thank you Sarah for my amazing shirt! Not only is it hilarious and cute, but it's hella soft. Bonus.

Now, excuse me while I delve into the feverish world of baking and vampires. It's just me, my couch, and my kitchen for hours. Love it, even with a fever.

The Chisty's in Austin

As if this weekend wasn't fun filled enough, Sunday we got to see one of our favorite families in the world, the Chisty's! Z lives all the way in Hawaii and although Sarah lives up north in Dallas now, she's about to move to Wisconsin! And Mrs. (and Mr., though not pictured, he was there in spirit!) Chisty live in Montreal! So I am very very glad we got to see them before they leave Texas for who knows how long.

We took them to eat at Hopdoddy (if you haven't eaten there, go, right now), last time Z was in town we tried to go but the line was too crazy. This time we braved the line and it was worth it!

After stuffing our faces with amazing-ness on buns, we meandered down South Congress and popped in a few shops. We definitely went a little crazy at the Big Top Candy Shop. Candy is good. Later in the evening we went down to Auditorium Shores for a little walk and Brendon got verbally abused for not knowing who Stevie Ray Vaughn was. Oh Austin, you are ever entertaining.

Also, I swear I took these with an iPhone, not a flip phone from 2006. Grainy is cool right? It's like, retro.

Bromance.

It was so good seeing Z, Sarah, and Mrs. Chisty. They are seriously some of the nicest people in the whole world. I am always blown away by how wonderful the people in our lives are! I will say it a million times over, we are so lucky! It is really sad that our friend-families live so far away. Oh well, sounds like a good vacation opportunity! Hawaii? Wisconsin? Montreal? I'm in! We miss you guys already. Come back to Texas!!

Wurstfest 2012 and finished Dirndl 2.0

Saturday after racing over obstacles and through mud, we headed down home to good old New Braunfels and went to Wurstfest with my sister and Brendon's family. It was cray cray. Last year (uhh, look how different/young we look!) it wasn't crowded it at all, but dang it was insane this year. I guess it was probably because we went on a Saturday night, but it got so crowded you literally couldn't walk. When we left it was basically one giant mob inside and there was still a loooong line to get in. Where were all those people going to fit??

But before it got ridiculous we had a grand time hanging with family, drinking beer, and eating German food. And of course we were able to sport our new German gear!

Forgive the obscene use of flash in these photos, it gets dark so quickly now! I also didn't take nearly as many pictures as I would have liked, mainly because there were 300 people all up in your grill at all times and busting out a giant camera didn't seem like a logical plan.

Waiting in the three hour line to get potato pancakes with this crazy dude? Worth it, as always. It was so crowded that we had to go sit by the river to eat our food. There was zero seating anywhere!

 Mysterious Brendon.

Because of the massive amount of people, we stopped by the gazebo in the circle to take a few quick pictures. Although I grew up in this town, I don't think I had ever stepped foot in that gazebo until then!

Brendon got a TON of compliments on his get up. I'm not sure if it's because he's super tall (and a cutie) or what but so many random people kept giving him props. He did look pretty dang good in that lederhosen.

Julie sported my dress from last year, and she made it look good! I was really happy with my new dress. Forgive my ridiculous face and the terrible angle (I need a shorter photographer), but this is seriously the best full shot of this thing. Sad, I know. I've become such a lazy blogger.

Sewing details (preview here)! I used this Simplicity pattern and I altered it a lot. Obviously that is not a dirndl pattern, it's like a hobbit costume or something. I had to get a little creative to make it more like a traditional dirndl. I nixed the original "sleeves" that were attached to the bodice and made it sleeveless. I wore a shirt I already had under it. I shortened the dress and lowered the neckline, scandalous as always, and the original pattern was EXTRA wide in the bodice so I took out about two inches from the middle by cutting it down the center and creating a closure with about 8 hook and eyes. Those hook and eyes sucked so bad sewing in, but they were worth it. I added little ribbon loops so I could lace the yellow ribbon through the bodice and actually use it to make the dress more fitted, the original pattern had the option of sewing on some faux-ribbon-crisscross-action across the bodice. No thank you! I made the apron smaller and shorter, originally I think it was supposed to go all the way around the dress, that thing would have been huge.

It was a lot of fun to sew and pretty easy, even with all the altering. It was refreshing to sew on good old cotton after the craziness of my Snow White costume. Although the cotton I used is really heavy. The skirt is extra extra gathered, turned out pretty bulky. Do overs (aka, the 2013 version): Use a lighter weight fabric for the skirt, taffeta for the bodice (ay, ay, fancy!), longer apron ties (maybe just a big ol' satin ribbon), make a short sleeved shirt to wear under it (we live in Texas after all) and cut the fabric amount for the skirt like in half. Way too much gathering.

And I leave you with this oddness:

A German boy creeping on a German girl with way too much messy hair. Look at all that ridiculous gathering in the back of that dress. Overkill.

Warrior Dash 2012

FIRE! And random people! On Saturday Brendon and I ran the Warrior Dash, and we had a lot of fun! This is the second obstacle course/5k I've run, Brendon and I did the Rebel Race in June. This was the second time Brendon did the Warrior Dash, he ran it before when we lived in Denton.

Compared to the Rebel Race, I think this course was way easier. The Rebel Race was basically a 5k cross country hike/run through ditches and gulleys and real big hills (covered in gravel), while this one was relatively flat. The obstacles were easier, I felt like there were fewer of them, but they were spread out pretty evenly. I am thankful for this because I was in much better shape back in June. When I moved to my new store in July I basically stopped running because I was and am just way too tired (and lazy). I love my job but it wears me out! 

Regardless, I still ran more this time than I thought I would, and we actually started off really strong, passing all the slow folks. BUT, of course, I pulled a muscle in my upper thigh (butt) on the first obstacle. Whomp, whomp, super embarassing. So we had to take a little pit stop for a few minutes. I was so pissed. It kind of screwed us over because it threw us behind a whole pack of slowish people so when we got to new obstacles, we basically had to stop running and wait in line for everyone to get over/around/through them. Not so fun. AND about half way through, while standing around waiting for people to climb up a hill, I got stung by a bee. Because that is my luck. I felt something tickling my back, so of course I went to grab at it and boom, stung on my pointer finger. Hurt like a mother, but luckily we pulled the stinger out pretty quickly, climbed up the hill, and I finished the race just fine.

The Warrior Dash had "cooler" obstacles than the Rebel Race. We got to jump over fire! And the mud was higher quality stuff, it smelled much less like animal feces and more just like mud. But instead of a shower station to rinse off, they just have these big water trucks that spray down a mass of people. Not very efficient. We were still really muddy when we got home.

Now pictures! These are all via my iPhone (cinco! It actually takes pretty dang good pictures!) because I was not trying to bring my good camera out there to get all muddy.

Pre-race! We were a little on the sleepy side. It was also really windy and a little cold!

Post race! There are no muddy pictures because we rinsed off before we dared to touch our belongings.

Muddy evidence left on the bottom of my pants.

We got big ol' medals, warrior hats, t-shirts, and free shades from Nissan! My sunglasses match my car now, y'all!

The best part of these things are the people who show up to them. Everyone is so fun! There was a stage with a DJ (I think a band was going to play later in the afternoon) and everyone was dancing!

See those people on the right? That's what everyone looked like after the race. MUDDY.

Of course they played Gangnam Style and we danced our butts off. Brendon was rockin' it.

We had a whole lot of fun. We were a little reluctant on our way out there because we have both been going nonstop for weeks and are hella tired these days, but it was so worth it. It's so much fun. If you have a chance, sign up for one of these things. You don't have to be in good shape (I'm proof!), just do it. It's a blast, I promise you'll love it. And if you have a choice between obstacle courses I highly recommend the Warrior Dash. Although it was pretty dang crowded and a bit easier than the Rebel Race, it was way more organized. A much better "event" in my opinion.

Just don't get stung by a bee and end up with a fat sausage finger for a few days. Because it's no fun. And not cute.

Although it doesn't really hurt, it burns, tingles, and itches like a mother. Bee's are stupid.