Your $40 Worth

Your $40 worth - FMSC Dallas from First Church Media on Vimeo.

FMSC Signup

Ok, kids - here's what I'm going to do for FMSC. I signed up officially for the first shifts on Saturday and Sunday, and then I'm going to stick around pretty much the whole day Saturday and the other shift Sunday to help my mom and sister out with registration and lunch-running and whatever else needs doing. Some of you have asked me when I'm going to be there so you can sign up for the same shifts, so pick a shift that works best for you (because I know 8am Saturday might not be ideal) and let me know when that is, and we can maybe do a "Friends of Bonnie" shift signup and get a table together. Seriously guys, it's fun and a great way to help people in need! Check out the shifts available here!

Smart. Phone.

I won't be joining the iPhone cult any time soon (pretty sure I'm T-Mobile's contract bitch for the rest of my natural-born days), but I did finally get a smartphone today, and I'm loving it. My husband and sister both got new ones this week, and of course I had to keep up. Got a white myTouch 3G, which looks super-cute in the purple skin I got to keep it looking nice. I'm pretty impressed - it came in a really fancy ripstop nylon case with a TON of peripherals.



I've already loaded it up with all of my contacts and synched it up with gmail (although I think I'm going to have to clean up my gmail contacts - holy cow, it keeps everyone I've ever gotten an email from), and set up fancy ringtones for various people... all kinds of fun stuff. Turns out it's super-easy to bring over songs from my computer and edit them into ringtones - fun! I know that's probably old-hat to most people, but I couldn't do it on my ancient old phone. (Although don't get me wrong - it was a great, trusty old phone, and I'm sad that I managed to lose it between the counter at the store where we took the SIM card out and the car. I planned to hang on to it for a backup.)

Anyway, I'm excited! Now I can do all kinds of fun stuff with my phone.

Knotty Dog

O.M.G.

I have been making knots ALL DAY. And I'm not even done. With the first dog. There's still another dog to do after this one. I think they're going to turn out cute, though.

This is Barnaby

Meet Barnaby the Beetle. He's been in the family for almost 6 years now. He gets his name from his pinstripes - they run down each side and end in swirls on the back that look like 'B's.



Barnaby started out his day with brunch at Mimi's Cafe - made it in time for the Brie Crepes (they only serve those till noon).



After brunch, Barnaby did some shopping at It's A Party... didn't buy anything, but ran into an old acquaintance and had a nice chat.



Barnaby had to stop at PetSmart to pick up some doggy de-stinker spray... gotta love that Nature's Miracle.



Then Barnaby picked up the stinkers themselves - they love to go for a ride.



Barnaby went for a shower - turns out Sadie is REALLY not a fan.



Although Miles thought it was a really exciting ride.



Wish there was a "before" for this shot... let's just say Barnaby's back was, um... trashed. Completely.



Barnaby spent another evening in the Bug-infested driveway, getting his maintenance finished up,



then drove home into the sunset.

Sunday in the life

Met my family for lunch at Tin Star,



where Sus was acting sassy as usual.



Mom got an amazing-looking taco (which we decided was more properly a tostada or gordita, since one really couldn't be expected to fold it).



Then the Bugs had a meeting in the driveway for Dad to do some maintenance while Mom and I went shopping.



We surprised Sus at work,



and got to take a look at her latest FMSC awareness marketing campaign - she wears different aprons to work every day, so she's made a Feed My Starving Children apron, and carries cards with the website info in the pocket to hand out to people who ask about it. She's so great at coming up with ways to let people know!

Speaking of FMSC, slots are now open to sign up to volunteer for the packing days - Friday, March 5, from 6-8pm, Saturday the 6th, 2-hour shifts from 8am to 8pm, or Sunday the 7th, 2 hour shifts at either 1pm or 3:30 pm. I'll probably be doing at least one Friday and one Saturday shift - I haven't decided which yet. Click here for info on signing up to volunteer or to donate!

Sitting

We did a little furniture shopping today - hopefully our couch and matching chair will come in soon, and we'll have the whole living room set up, but until then, we at least have some more seating. We were happy to find this cute chair at World Market - on sale! Pretty much just what we were looking for.



We also picked up a couple of storage ottomans - they're really comfortable, have space inside for blankets and things, and...



The top has a tray on the other side. Very handy.

Um, crap

Sometimes I'm glad I'm not a homeowner yet.



Or at least not this particular home.



See, all these cracks (and more, I just didn't post them all because they look pretty much the same) appeared basically overnight.



Remember those fun couple of days last week and earlier this week when it was suuuper cold all of a sudden and then *TA-DA* balmy and gorgeous outside? Yeah, apparently top-floor apartments in brand-new buildings don't really like that so much.

Neighborhood Lights

Fairy lights on the green




Pretty light fixtures at Potbelly, of all places.

Real Life Poodle Encounters - Caught On Camera!

What can we learn from these fascinating creatures? Is there some significance to the sticking-out-the-tongue gesture?



It's possible that we may be about to witness an altercation between the dominant female and the male (scientific term: little guy) - let's watch and find out.



No such luck - this seems to be one of the rare occasions on which they meet and don't engage in some form of wrestling match. Maybe next time.



Oh dear. The female seems to have discovered the camera.

Love this stuff

I don't know how I'd get through the dry winter without this body butter... I just have to remember not to think about how much it costs. It smells sooooo good.

Cheery Owl

This is a little ornament my mom made for me - it was going to be for Christmas, but she just finished it today and I'm going to hang it up in my study with some other less-seasonal cute ornaments. I love him! He's so cheerful.

Yum yum yummy

Poking around on Yelp, I found high praise for the Crazy Tomato and decided to try it out for dinner tonight.



O. M. G.



We got the pepperoni rolls (best ones I've had) and I had the combo pasta - really good, but I ended up mostly eating the spaghetti under the rest of the pasta, because the sauce is so good. Next time, I'll probably end up just getting baked spaghetti (all of the pastas are baked with lots and lots of yummy cheese on top). Actually, I'll probably alternate between baked spaghetti and pepperoni rolls - everything we got was SO huge, we really didn't need to get as much food as we ordered (although we're glad we did, so we could try things). I'm so full, and have leftovers for the rest of the week.

Office Space

With my new OTT light from Christmas, my study/craft area is really coming together - it's a really nice little space for working, stamping, embroidery, whatever. But, you know, sometimes, it looks like... this.



And sometimes the couch is just more comfortable for working in my jammies. I work from home, on a laptop, so why not?



Working in the living room also means access to the TV, which isn't such a bad thing.



Although my coworkers are always sleeping on the job.

Books Books Books

Due to some FANTASTIC help from Emily, in the form of extension shelves to go on top of our bookshelves, I was finally able to get all of my books unpacked today.



Once we find the right chair, and lamp, this is going to be a nice little reading corner - we'll only have to move the chair a couple of feet when we have people over for comfortable conversation.



And this shelf is the book/game/TV-season shelf. The rest of the dvds are going onto... something from Ikea that I'll be getting soon, but it probably won't have space for TV seasons, so they're going here.

Latest Craft Obsession

Someone pointed me toward Sublime Stitching, and I've been embroidery-obsessed ever since. This isn't actually one of their patterns - it's a "Bonnie Bonnet" pattern I picked up at the store. I'm using it for practice while I wait for my books from Sublime Stitching to come so I can learn some fancier stitches and start some bigger projects. In the meantime, I'll finally master the french knot and end up with some new kitchen towels.

Chilly boy

The puppies got haircuts this weekend, and Miles woke up cold this morning. I put him in a sweater (pretty much the ugliest sweater ever, but the other option was a jacket, and it's itchy), but apparently that wasn't sufficient... I came back from the kitchen to find him like this.

2

We got some new monos - it's starting to shape up into a really nice tank! They seem to be getting along well with the puffers - no fights yet.

36...3 in 365

Getting a late, silly start in joining Emily for Project 365:



Yes, it's a teeny-tiny, one-egg-sized pan. And it makes the best egg sandwich EVER.

And as compensation for the horrible photography, my lone handmade Christmas card this year: